196th Episode Spectacular!
by Hinterland Seer
Summary: My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic, has been around for quite some time, and with nearly 200 episodes to it's name, we've decided to take a look at some of the original episodes, and how they may have looked under fictional alternate timelines. Expect a collection of loosely tied chapters detailing various chapters from the first season! Idea inspired and requested by Retro Mania.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"HHHHEEEELLLLOOO, everypony! Or rather, should I say 'everybody?'" Pinkie sudden materialized, standing in the middle of the crystal hallway found in Twilight's castle, bright blue eyes piercing straight through the screen, diving deep into your very soul. Then a massive grin split her face as she reached into her mane and pulled out an entire folding chair, plopping her fluffy flank into it, smiling at you all the while. "Goodness, Celestia we've been going at this for so very long now.

"Why, I remember when the fourth generation of My Little Pony had its debut, all that long time ago. And wow: we've come such a long way!" She said cheerily, pulling a pencil and a clipboard out of her mane, eyes briefly glancing down at the notes she began taking. "I sure am glad that Lauren Faust was there to adapt the series for you wonderful people out there, else I would never have made as many friends as I have!"

A sudden gasp escaped her lips. "You guys are all my friends, right? Right?!

"Anyways, back to the matter at hoof: My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic. As I've said before, Lauren Faust was one of the founding creators of the series, among many talented artists, developers and voice actors. While I know you are all familiar with this series, many of you may like to hear that she had also been a leading contributor in other famous television series such as the Powerpuff Girls (Through the lack of visuals, just imagine three babies wearing color-coded outfits flying outwards), and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (Imagine Slenderman, B.O.B. from Monsters Vs. Aliens, and a psychedelic chocobo from Final Fantasy). Her husband was the creator of both of those shows, so it is easy to see that a talent for quality shows runs in her entire family!" Pinkie jumped in her seat excitedly. "We are all very sad that she was unable to remain with the entire story, as nopony would have been able to guess where her vision of the series would have led us! However, we will not shun what lovely story we have been blessed with, as the current executives at Hasbro are leading us into *coughcough* _unknown territory_ *coughcough*. We still love the show, even if it may have received unholy criticism by some, and worshipply praise by others.

"However, while we will all accept that the first season, indeed the series premiere, was among the best to be produced, did you know that there were a number of edits and rewrites to the story? I bet you didn't! With season 8 finally concluded, and season 9 on it's way to wrap up the series, we here in the pony world figured it would be nice to go back in time and grab some of the original scripts and act out what was supposed to happen! So, without further ado; here's the pilot episode to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Untold Stories)!"

Twilight's chariot landed in the small town of Ponyville, Spike faithfully at her side as she stepped onto the dirt path, eyeing her suddenly dirty hooves with slight distaste.

"Alright, Spike: what's the first item on the agenda that will ensure Princess Celestia receives the complete best this town has to offer?"

The purple dragon with green spines glanced down at the large list in his claws, eyes quickly scanning the top of the list to check the requirements for the festival. "Well, let's see here: the list says that food catering is going to be among the important things for everypony, so maybe we need to start on that, then head to wherever the weather ponies are stationed to clear the skies."

"Then off to the food catering we go!" Twilight beamed proudly, pointing a hoof in the direction of the heart of town, leaning forward to take a step. She paused one moment before she could commit to the step, an embarrassed smile touching her lips as she glanced down at her number 1 assistant. "Uh, Spike? Where exactly are we going to check the catering?"

"List says one 'Sweet Apple Acres,' so. . ." He paused to take note of their surroundings before jogging over to a bright pink earth pony with a curly, equally pinkish mane. The pink mare's bright blue eyes bulged as she saw Spike heading towards her, and she let out an absurdly loud gasp.

" _Yup! That is TOTALLY something I remember doing: it was just so exciting to see new faces, well new back then, and with all the planning I was doing to make the best, super-awesome Summer Sun Celebration ever, my excitement was already on overload, and then I got new faces to greet and new ponies to meet and I was just soooo happy that that day was going to be the best. Day. Ever! So, yeah, I may have been holding back on the excitement, just a teensy, weensy little bit." Pinkie explained._

"OHMYGOODNESS!" Pinkie shouted, grabbing Spike in a death-grip and squealing into his ears with all her heart's content. "I love meeting new ponies!"

"Excuse me, miss? Miss?" Spike struggled to get air into his lungs, at his struggles managed to remind the mare to let him go, to which his body responded with great enthusiastic gulping of breathable air. Once he had calmed down, he glanced up at the mare, intending to ask her a question, but her splitting grin and visible shaking seemed to deter him. He settled for smiling kindly towards her while backing away, and once he had gotten some distance between them, Twilight teleported the pair a safe distance from the pink menace. They got directions from a sweet cream-colored earth pony with a striped blue and pink mane.

Outside of Ponyville, the pair came across a large fenced farm, with a large variety of crops growing just near the entrance, but endless expanses or apple trees extending in front of them. They followed the trail to the farmhouse just across the way, until they were greeted by a frantically running yellow-furred filly carrying baskets of apples. Her bright red mane flowing in wind while a giant bow tried to escape her head. Twilight paused to see what had gotten the filly all worked up, until she saw a large gathering of ponies all shuffling around in a large pile.

Twilight trotted over and helped the pack of earth ponies split up and separate, until an orange earth pony sporting a brown stetson hat and red bands holding in her straw-blond mane and tail approached her.

"Ah'm might sorry about that partner, we were just in a bit o' a pickle, what with all the panicking that we've been fightin' ta get ready fer the Celebration." The mare explained apologetically, wiping a hoof across her face as she smiled. Twilight immediately liked the mare, and waved off the apology.

"No worries. I'm just here to check up on the food, as I was told this was the place it would be coming from. You see, Princess Celestia asked us to check up on the festival, and to keep things according to schedule. Though, from the looks of things, it seems to me that you all are in a bit of a bind." She smiled, glancing over at the mass of ponies picking up the pile of food items now littering the ground.

"Ya couldn't have explained it any clearer, Ah'm afraid. We've just been plum-tuckered out with work, an' on top o' that: things ain't been easy with the usual farm work."

"Well, maybe I could be of some assistance?" Twilight offered, a smile on her face as the two mares glanced again at the ponies finally getting themselves into a somewhat organized mess. She looked back to see the orange mare considering the proposal.

"Ah'm gonna be honest with ya: Ah don't much like the idea of somepony doing our work for us," The tone spoken strongly reinforced the image to Twilight. "But ah'd be a fool to decline an offer when the entire country will want need something ta eat, so if ya'd kindly help us get together, maybe we'll have everythin' ready by the time the sun goes down."

The orange mare extended a hoof, which Twilight immediately shook, the feeling of worry she felt just moments before vanishing behind assurance that she could manage these ponies into a cohesive team and prepare the meal that would earn her the Princess' attention.

So, after some quick thinking and smart talking, Twilight had the entire Apple family following concise instructions to prepare the food, and then she was reminded that she had a few other things to take care of, made so by a nervous Spike.

Making their way back into town, Twilight was frequently told to look for a 'Rainbow Dash' for the weather control, but nopony seemed to really know where she was. At first, the idea of searching around town for the pegasus appealed to Twilight, as it gave her an opportunity to learn about the place, but after an hour of nothing, it started to grate on her nerves. Spike had taken to nervously rolling and unrolling the scroll in his claws to pass the time.

Giving up on trying to find the mare on her own, she began to ask directions from the locals, eventually taking her just outside of the city. The blue mare was napping on a cloud.

"Hey! Excuse me, are you Rainbow Dash?!" Twilight called out, using magic to amplify her voice to cross the distance between them, though it seemed to have little effect, as the pegasus was so deep into her nap that she didn't even shift in her sleep. Twilight pouted at the reaction, or lack-thereof, and was tempted to start pouting over the delays, but luckily Spike was there to do that for her. "Excuse me! Miss?!"

It took a few attempts, but eventually, the rainbow-maned mare finally stirred, rolling her sleepy head over the edge of the cloud, with bleary eyes squinting below. Eventually, the pegasus just kind of dropped out of the cloud, letting gravity do the work of lowering her to the ground, before snapping her wings open and landing with a soft thump on the grassy knoll beneath her favorite napping place.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked after releasing an exaggerated yawn and scratching her face with a hoof, her bright pink eyes not entirely focusing on anything.

"Are you by any chance Rainbow Dash, the weather manager and coordinator of the weather ponies here in Ponyville? Because Twilight and I were sent here by Princess Celestia herself to make sure that everything was going according to schedule for tonight." Spike answered before Twilight could even open her muzzle, much to the surprise of both mares here, though that came from the impatient tone the hatchling dragon was using. Twilight had always known Spike to be a little on the orderly side, always sticking to schedules and whatnot, but this was a level of strictness that he rarely ever showed, even under pressure from the assignments Princess Celestia assigned them. "We noticed a definite lapse in management over the local nimbus fragments appearing all over town, and if we are to achieve a proper Summer Sun Celebration, and for everypony to have the best experience, then the skies have, and I repeat, HAVE, to be clear for both overnight as well as dawn."

"Uhh. . . well, look; I can get these clouds done in like, ten seconds flat." Rainbow puffed her chest, gesturing towards the gently floating puffs of white mist that spotted the otherwise beautiful blue skies. "Besides, it's still only like noon, so I've got plenty of time before I need to worry about anything, so how about you two just run off and make sure everypony else has what they need: I've got this."

Rainbow had her mouth open to say something else, but a high pitch squealing from somewhere above them caught all their attention. The three stared up into the skies, trying to find the source of the terrified screaming, until a bright yellow blob appeared between the rays of bright sunlight. At first nothing took any semblance, but as the blob came closer, it took form into that of a flailing pony, along with several brown blobs that could have been birds, or maybe some other small animal.

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow gawked, although the confusion in her voice nearly drowned out any other emotion, something the others were also feeling.

The confusion soon morphed into panic as Rainbow realized the falling pony wasn't going to be able to stop the descent. The cyan mare sprung open her wings and leapt into the air, rapidly ascending to meet with the flailing Fluttershy before her and whatever else was attached to her hit the ground. The blue blur made a beeline to the yellow, slowing to minimize the damage of a sudden stop, and carefully grabbed onto the flailing pony.

The entire affair demonstrated flight skills that made Twilight envious for a brief moment, which was soon replaced by concern at the well-being of this Fluttershy, Rainbow gently set the shuddering buttery pegasus down, which intensified the confusion and concern that Twilight was feeling. Why would a pegasus be falling at such a dangerous velocity, in an uncontrolled spin like that?

Rainbow merely sat there next to the shivering pony, who was only able to latch onto the two average-sized eagles that must have been falling with her. Twilight waited for a few minutes, but the buttery pony just wouldn't stop shaking, nor did she seem like she was in any condition to do any talking.

"Look, guys. Sorry to have this chat cut short, but I've got to get Fluttershy back home, and then maybe I'll be able to find out what happened. Until then, you're just going to have to wait for the weather stuff."

"But-" Spike began.

"NO!" Rainbow rapidly shook her head. "I'm sorry, but no matter how important this festival is for you, friends are always going to be more important to me than any silly event. Fluttershy needs somepony to be there for her, but you'll all be fine if there are a few clouds here or there: it's not like we've got a storm coming in or anything."

Spike looked like he was going to argue back, but Twilight prevented it from getting that far by putting a hoof in front of him and shaking her head when he glanced her way. She flashed an apologetic smile towards the pair of pegasi. "I wish you two safe travels, then. And whatever happened up there, I hope it never happens again: it sure looked like a scary ordeal."

It seemed like the kind words had a small revival effect on the petrified mare, because her shivering slowed enough for her to cast what looked like the shadow of a grateful smile. Either way, Twilight felt like Rainbow Dash would get the weather cleared one way or another, but that Fluttershy sure did look like she needed help. She figured she could at least check up on the remaining activities and assets that had to get done. So she hauled Spike off so they could continue on with this very important day.

 _Just a friendly little bit of input from your total best favorite pony EEEVVVVVEEEERRRRR! Pinkie Pie! Like wow, who would have ever thought that Spike could have been the one that was all uptight and worried about schedules and timing? I know that it sure would have felt different knowing that Twilight was the one to go all bananas on us, but I know we would have loved them both just the same._

Twilight and Spike made their way back into the heart of Ponyville, as directed by Spike's list and the locals' directions towards their next destination: town hall.

As the pair made their way towards the large building at the heart of town, Twilight made sure to get a good look at the town's inhabitants. She found the diversity to be vastly interesting, as the ponies seemed to assimilate everything about pony society from the dawn of time. There were farms dotting the outskirts dominated by earth pony family, the clouds were ruled by pegasi in this interesting militaristic style, and the unicorns seemed to incorporate themselves in the luxurious sections of town.

Twilight smiled as she saw the large town hall, glad to finally be getting close to check on the decorations and to see the taste in style that this small, cozy town had to offer. It seemed that Spike, who was resting comfortably on her back, was merely glad to finally be checking off on yet another key part of the list.

She was trotting at a merry pace when a sudden gray blur rocketed down towards them. Luckily, Twilight caught sight of it before it slammed into her. She glanced down while a shaky gray pegasus with blond hair sat up, her eyes doing circles from the impact.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked as she helped the poor mare onto her hooves, just in time to have a shower of letters and envelopes rain down upon them. Twilight frowned at the falling messages, but that lasted until one package in particular landed on her mane, with a nasty splatting sound coming from within.

"Uhh, Twilight?" Spike asked, though it was difficult to make out over the sound of his snickering. "I think you got a little something in your mane."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The pegasus said, shaking her head clear and looking close to where Twilight was. While the unicorn tried to look into the pegasus' eyes, she found that she could only focus on one at a time, as they were a bit derpy to look at; with one staring into the sky and the other pointed at the ground. "I just don't know what went wrong."

"It's quite alright." Twilight waved it off, helping the mare fully onto her hooves and casting a levitation spell to get most of the mail back to her. "I believe this belongs to you?"

"Oh, thank you!" The gray mare chirped, grabbing a mouthful and simply shoving the letters into her saddlebags. Twilight smiled sympathetically towards the poor mare; she seemed happy, if a little bit of a klutz, but the happiness seemed so genuine and infectious.

Once she had all of the mail back to it's deliverer, she cast a quick spell to clean her mane, which had the unfortunate side effect of puffing her mane up into a mess. She sighed in disappointment, but perked back up when Spike nudged her neck. "You look great no matter how what you do with your mane, Twilight."

"Thanks , Spike."

Without any further interruptions, the two finally managed to get to the town hall, which was being decorated by a pretty white unicorn with a luxurious curled mane and tail. As the pair got closer, Spike seemed to stand tall on Twilight's back for a moment, before he suddenly fell off of hers.

The white mare heard the thump as Spike hit the ground, but she let out a gasp as she turned to see what happened. She galloped over, and Twilight was about to politely tell her that she didn't have to rush over to check on Spike, that he would be fine, when she stared deep into the lavender mare's eyes. Twilight winced inwardly at the panic in this unicorn's eyes, and her magic barely managed to drop Spike on his feet before the mare slid to a stop before her.

"Oh my stars, darling! What happened to your mane?!" The unicorn gasped, the items being held in her magic moments before dropping to the ground.

"What: this?" Twilight asked as she took a few strands in her hoof and peaked at how badly her mane was. "Oh, it's just a bit of a long story, not really all that important. We're just here to check on the decorations for the celebration, then we'll be out of your hare."

"Out of _my_ hair? What about _your_ hair?" The unicorn dramatically raised a hoof to her forehead as she leaned and swayed, suddenly dropping to the ground in a mock faint. "Come along darling, we simply must take care of that before anything else: and while I may not be the best mane stylist in Ponyville, I know what a mare needs in order to look her best. I promise you that by the time I'm through with you, you'll be a whole new beautiful mare."

As she was stating her intentions, she was using her magic to drag Twilight along by the hoof, with an awestruck Spike jogging after them.

They made their way through town, trotting along until they came across a large carousel-esque building with colorful tarps and beautiful designs all over it. Twilight's jaw dropped when she saw it; "You live here?"

"And I also happen to run my business out of this lovely place: I can be a bit messy sometimes in my room, but I make due." Rarity shrugged, opening the door and gesturing for them to head inside, to which Spike seemed to take an unusual liking to: as he nearly teleported striaght inside. Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes before timidly following after him, taking care to admire the amazing dresses on display inside the large round room.

And a short hour later, Rarity had Twilight's mane done up all pretty, and Spike was dishing out compliments on the mare's hoof-work all the while, directed towards the fashionista herself. Not that Twilight would complain: she was a fan of how her mane was curled. She thought it made her look even prettier.

"Are you sure that this wasn't too much trouble, though? I'd hate to have put you too far behind on your other work." Twilight asked.

"Of course, darling. Anything to help those that need it: it's just something that Ponyville has really helped me see. Why wouldn't I want to help anypony who needed it, especially when they happen to be one of Princess Celestia's personal students? Don't worry about it, dear: I enjoy being able to help others, and I will not accept any form of apology from you: I needed a break from decorations as it was." Rarity answered with a wave of her hoof. "But, I suppose it is finally time to get back to work, so you can just go along your way, and I'll get this done. Have a wonderful day, Twilight!"

Twilight waved her away, knowing full well that Rarity was perfectly capable of finishing the job herself, having had a lengthy conversation about paying her for it. Rarity had made it crystal clear that the generous act of doing her mane was a gift, and not in need of repayment.

So, Twilight found herself dragging Spike away from the mare so they could continue, because she was starting to get a little tired from all the walking around town. "Where to next, Spike?"

"Uhh. . . you say something Twilight?" Spike asked in return, clearing his thoughts from the fashionista so he could have a conversation with the lavender mare.

"Yeah, Spike: what's next on the agenda? I'm getting a little tired, and it would be nice to go and check out the library Princess Celestia wanted us to stay in while we are here." Twilight answered, casting a quick glance at the named building.

Well, tree. Not building.

Spike hummed as he pulled up the list, eyes scanning quickly to find last item on the list: the musical accompany. "Says here we were supposed to talk with somepony about the birds that were going to be singing at the morning part. Oh. . . oh dear. . . Uh, Twilight?"

"Yes, Spike?"

"The list actually gives us the name of the pony we are supposed to go and meet about this: and it's Fluttershy." Twilight stopped mid-trot, mouth slightly open as she turned to look at Spike.

"Oh. Well, Rainbow Dash did say that she needed somepony to stay with her, so. . do you think we should go and check on her, and see if she was alright?" Twilight asked, inwardly hoping that the pegasus was alright, although she somewhat understood now why the mare had been in the air with the eagles. Maybe she was trying to recruit them for the singing, but she had heard eagles screech: it wasn't the quite of song that was good for special occasions.

At Spike's sympathetic nod, she got directions from a local, and began the slightly longer trek out of town to a cozy cottage next to a small stream. The entire location was stunningly beautiful, and Twilight immediately knew this was the ideal place to keep a bunch of animals, even as a family of otters climbed out of the stream and ran around the house.

They went up and knocked on the door. After a short delay, Rainbow Dash opened the door, surprise across her face at seeing both Twilight and Spike again. "Yeah?"

"Oh! Hi Rainbow Dash, Spike and I were wondering how Fluttershy was doing after that tumble she took, and if she is well enough, we were hoping to hear from her about how far she got with the birds for the festival." Twilight explained, and while the cyan pegasus appeared uneasy at having visitors, she turned to see Fluttershy fluttering about helping a small grove's worth of animals within her house. "Why are all these animals inside?"

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry! I didn't know I was going to be having guests over, or else I would have prepared some food for you. Just let me run to the kitchen real quick!" Fluttershy gasped as she saw Twilight, but then her eyes drifted to Spike, who was standing slightly behind the unicorn, and an unbelievably high-pitched squeal escaped her lips as she burst forth and nearly knocked Twilight off of her hooves to get to the hatchling dragon. "Is that a baby dragon?! I've never seen a baby dragon before!"

"Sorry about Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash apologized as she helped Twilight straighten up. "She just loves animals, and anything to do with them. It seems like sometimes she takes too much care for the critters, and she forgets to take care of herself."

"Oh it shouldn't be a big deal." Twilight replied as she turned to see Spike being crushed by the over-affectionate buttery mare. "Fluttershy? My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is Spike."

Fluttershy idly shook Twilight's hoof, but her attention was devoted entirely upon the dragon, and she bombarded him with questions. It took Rainbow Dash prying the mare off of Spike before she calmed down.

"I'm just so sorry everypony, but I've never seen a baby dragon before, and not many ponies get to see dragons as it is, and I just so love to meet new creatures." Fluttershy shuffled her hooves together as an embarrassed blush spread across her muzzle. "But I doubt you were here just to show me this wonderful little bundle of joy-"

"He's a bundle of something." Twilight muttered under her breath before smiling at Fluttershy. "I'm sure Spike would be willing to come by sometime to talk with you about what it's like being a dragon, wouldn't you Spike? But you are correct: we originally came here to check on you and to ask about the progress of the bird choir for the Summer Sun Celebration."

Fluttershy smiled thankfully, and nodded towards a bunch of birds all sitting on a windowsill. "OH thankyouthankyouthankyou! Spike and I will be the best of friends! I want to know everything about you, Spike. I think we've got some more practice to do, but we should be ready to go when the time comes. And thank you for checking on me, though I was perfectly fine, just a little shaken up when those two eagles got into an argument."

"Well, since you're doing better, Fluttershy: I'm going to head out and clear up the skies for tomorrow." Rainbow Dash declared as she flew to the door. "See you guys later!"

Twilight and Spike made quick time getting back to the library, though the sun was already at the horizon and light was fading fast. Twilight ushered them inside, though the main room was completely black. "Where's the light?"

"SURPRISE!" A chorus of ponies shouted as the lights suddenly flickered on.

 _Oh oh oh! I remember this part! This was that surprise party that I manage to throw together for Twilight, and they even kept the super totally awesome party invovlved. Huh, guess that was why they changed the story: to keep my party the same! Do you guys know how much work that was to get together? I spent the entire day planning it! Oh? Sorry guys, I guess I spoiled the surprise didn't I? Well, I mean, you all did kind of see it way back when you first watched the series, so I guess nothing was really spoiled at all! Anyways, I guess we might want to get to the interesting parts huh? You all know what I'm talking about: Night Mooooooooooooooooooooon._

Every pony in Ponyville gathered inside the town hall for the sunrise, Twilight and her friends were all gathered in the front rows, being the primary ones helping set it all up, while Fluttershy led her choir of birds for the introduction of Princess Celestia herself, with a spotlight falling upon the curtians.

The light fell upon Mayor Mare, who spoke with a loud, clear voice so that all could hear her: "Fillies and gentlecolts; as mayor of Ponyville, it is my pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebrations!"

Cheers from the crowd.

"In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise and celebrate this; the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of land. The very pony who gives us the sun and moon each and every day. The good. The wise. The bringer of Harmony to all of Equestria: Princess Celestia!"

The bird choir rose up in volume, and the curtains of the platform above the Mayor were drawn back, as the spotlight rose up, ,the crowd gasped: Princess Celestia was missing!

Before the crowd could do much more than murmur dissent, shadows cloaked the platform, and from the mist-like darkness, a single figure rose, only known by a blackness darker than the void itself. The crowd watched in terror as a black and blue alicorn paraded into the light. Spike hopped off of Twilight's back, concern fighting for dominance over his voice as he muttered under his breath: "Nightmare Moon."

"Oh, my beloved subjects; it's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces." The alicorn spoke with a sweet tone, though there was a bitterness underneath that hinted at something darker.

Rainbow Dash growled; "What did you do with our Princess?"

"What, am I not royal enough for you?" The alicorn chuckled, sneering down at the rainbow-maned pegasus. "Don't you know who I am? Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?"

Nightmare Moon teleported to Fluttershy and her bird choir, mist-blue mane enveloping many of smaller birds until they shrieked in terror. She then appeared in front of Rarity, stroking the mare's chin like one would a foal. "Did you not recall the legends? Did you not see the signs?"

Spike jumped in between the two, doing his best to protect his love interest the best he could. "I did! And I know who you are:you're the Mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon!"

The crowd didn't like that revelation.

"Well, well, well. Somepony who does remember me. Then you will also remember why I am here." Nightmare Moon chuckled, much to the fear of the gathered ponies. Spike started to tremble, but he made Twilight proud by holding his ground.

"You're here to. . . to. . ."

"Remember this day, little ponies. For it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last. . . forever! Ahahahahahahaha." Her mane swirled up to unnatural proportions and lightning crackled from the swirling vortex it was forming.

"Ahahahahahaha. Ahahahahahahaha.."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Wowee, that sure was a fun series premiere wasn't it?" Pinkie asked as the flashback of Nightmare Moon's opening appearance faded to black, revealing the same small room with her comfortable chair. "But before we get into too much, we just can't move onto some of the other amazing episodes without finishing the second half of this one! Let's see how things play out, huh?!"

Pinkie giddily jumped up to the roof of the room, pulling on a rope and letting another black screen fall down from somewhere within, ripples flowing across the world as the pink earth pony used the magic of television videos to relive the past.

Previously on My Little Pony:

"Ah'm gonna be honest with ya: Ah don't much like the idea of somepony doing our work for us," The tone spoken strongly reinforced the image to Twilight. "But ah'd be a fool to decline an offer when the entire country will want need something ta eat, so if ya'd kindly help us get together, maybe we'll have everythin' ready by the time the sun goes down."

"NO!" Rainbow rapidly shook her head. "I'm sorry, but no matter how important this festival is for you, friends are always going to be more important to me than any silly event. Fluttershy needs somepony to be there for her, but you'll all be fine if there are a few clouds here or there: it's not like we've got a storm coming in or anything."

"Of course, darling. Anything to help those that need it: it's just something that Ponyville has really helped me see. Why wouldn't I want to help anypony who needed it, especially when they happen to be one of Princess Celestia's personal students? Don't worry about it, dear: I enjoy being able to help others, and I will not accept any form of apology from you: I needed a break from decorations as it was." Rarity answered with a wave of her hoof. "But, I suppose it is finally time to get back to work, so you can just go along your way, and I'll get this done. Have a wonderful day, Twilight!"

"Sorry about Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash apologized as she helped Twilight straighten up. "She just loves animals, and anything to do with them. It seems like sometimes she takes too much care for the critters, and she forgets to take care of herself."

"SURPRISE!" A chorus of ponies shouted as the lights suddenly flickered on.

The bird choir rose up in volume, and the curtains of the platform above the Mayor were drawn back, as the spotlight rose up, ,the crowd gasped: Princess Celestia was missing!

 _My Little Pony, My Little Pony. AH!_

"Skip! Sorry everybody, but I'm sure we've all seen this intro like a hundred bazillion times, and I know we're running on borrowed screen time, so how about we hit up that juicy story?! HUH?! Huh?!" Pinkie's voice bounced around the frozen theme song.

"Seize her!" Mayor Mare cried out, glancing at a trio of golden-armored guards, who hastily took flight towards Nightmare Moon. "Only she knows where the Princess is!"

Unfortunately, it seemed that not even the conniving Mare in the Moon was to be caught unaware, for as soon as the guards approached, she stared them down. Her cackling stopped long enough for her eyes to glow a bright cyan and bolts of lightning cracked through the air. "Stand back you fools!"

Her voice rang throughout the room, echoing inside everypony's eardrums while three bolts of white lightning struck the guards when they came within striking distance. Before anymore guards could apprehend the villain, a veil of star-like mist embraced the dark alicorn, her maniacal laughter something the likes of which one could have expected from a villain in a children's television series. The mist obscured Nightmare Moon, racing around her like a furious tornado before throwing itself down off the balcony.

The dark alicorn was gone, but the ponies were otherwise engaged in leaping out of the way of the charging mist else they get trampled. The mist made a bolt for the door, knocking it open before taking to the skies.

Rainbow Dash took after her, only to lose sight of the fleeing villain over the Everfree Forest. She hovered there for a moment before glancing back down at the town hall, where a number of her friends were running out as well. "Nighttime, forever?"

Twilight carried Spike out of the town hall, much from the hastened urgency of Spike's beckoning towards the library. Rainbow cast a worried glance down at the lavender unicorn, troubled by how things were turning out, but the look in that baby dragon's eyes brought out her curiosity. The dragon by the name of Spike seemed utterly resolute in demeanor, his eyes ablaze in a fiery passion.

The sight stirred Rainbow Dash out of her stupor to the point that she figured it the best path to follow Twilight and see what was on the little dragon's mind. Maybe he knew something that might be helpful or at least had an idea of what they could do.

Twilight galloped towards the library, not stopping for any of the other panicking ponies also charging around rampantly. Spike was mumbling in a strained voice about those stones he kept talking about. The moment the two of them burst through the door, the purple dragon leapt towards the stack of books, his tone picking up an even greater air of emergency. While Spike dashed around diving through books, the unicorn made a beeline straight up the stairs, before promptly returning with a blanket held in a purple aura. Her timing hit right as Spike loosed a mighty yawn, book in claw

Rainbow glided through the doors, just in time to witness the purple mare carrying an extremely drowsy Spike back up the stairs, tightly wrapped in a blanket. She blinked in surprise, for the dragon had seemed determined enough to tear down a mountain but moments before. She didn't have a lot of time to think on it, however, as Twilight descended the stairs again, though this time at a much more worried pace.

"Just got to find that book that Spike was talking about, maybe it'll have some answers on those Elements of Harmony he always coveted." Twilight muttered, resuming the task that the young dragon had started, books flying everywhere as she searched. "I don't know why he'd be bringing them up right now, but I suppose it has to be something important."

"What are these 'Elements of Harmony' you're bringing up?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying just above the ground in the library. Her question caused Twilight to jump, the unicorn turning tightly to face the uninvited guest, before realizing who it was.

"They were supposed to be these six ancient stones that harnessed the magic of harmony itself, used by Princess Celestia to stop Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago. We know today, being: kindness, laughter, generosity, honesty, and loyalty. And even though we know there were six, the last is a complete mystery, but I know that if we had them, we'd be able to stop Nightmare Moon." Twilight explained as she turned back to the pile of books, brightening as she finally found the necessary book. "Spike was obsessed that she was going to return. . . I should have listened to him. . . but I always told him that Nightmare Moon was just an old mare's tale. The Elements were six gems that Princess Celestia used to both imprison Nightmare Moon and Discord-"

Twilight opened to the two pages in the book, one showing five colored gemstones arranged in a circle around a loose portrait of the white alicorn herself.

"- but that she stored them away after the former was trapped inside the moon. Nopony really believed Spike, mostly because he was a baby, and had a fascination with these kinds of things." Twilight continued, sifting to a page of Nightmare Moon battling Princess Celestia, who had the stones floating about her.

"But what does that have to do with this current situation, darling?" Rarity asked, trotting in from behind Rainbow Dash, concern showing clear on her face. Twilight turned to see the other ponies she met earlier arriving inside the library: Applejack, Fluttershy, and finally Pinkie Pie. "Even if we had these Elements of Harmony, Princess Celestia is missing, and I doubt even Rainbow Dash would be fast enough to find her before this villain does serious damage."

"Well. . . then I. . . I guess we have to find the Elements and use them ourselves." Twilight decided shakily, though she wasn't certain she even knew where to begin looking for the artifacts. Her resolve hardened a bit when the other girls seemed equally nervous, but nodded in agreement. "I suppose the first place to look would be the old castle in the Everfree. . . the book says that's where the Princess last had them."

"The. . . the Everfree?" the group asked shakily, all reserve vanquished at the thought of traversing the woods, especially at night. Though the girls seemed deathly afraid, it was Rainbow Dash who caught their attention. "Come on guys! If we don't hurry, something bad might happen!"

Twilight silently thanked the cyan mare for her help stirring the group, because while she was terrified of the reputation of the dark wilds, she was going to find those stones no matter the cost: Princess Celestia needed her to. She glanced between the terrified girls, then cast a worried glance upstairs to where Spike lay sleeping.

Fearing her resolve would abandon her, she put on a brave face and led the group out of the library, making quick time to get to the edge of the Everfree, just outside of town.

The six mares stood in front of the darkened woods, glancing between each other with worried eyes, while the depths of the abyssal darkness stared out from the wood-line. The girls stood frozen in place for a brief moment, until Pinkie chirped up: "Well, let's go!"

 _Hey! This moment was totally awesome, because I was all like 'we should totally head in there! Like; right now! But all the others were like: 'I don't know Pinkie. . . it's super dark and scary in there.' But eventually we all got in there anyways because Equestria like totally needed us to do it! Many of you all remember way back in the first episode how the girls and I all did this super incredibly fun take around the Everfree where Nightmare Moon accidentally made us all realize our potential to bear the Elements? Yeah, that was super amazing, but incidentally was not in the original take; but after this break to show you all the awesome-sauceness that is our amazing sponsors, we'll find out just what actually happened after a rather bland and boring trot through the scary dark woods!_

 _But before we go, some super fun trivia with your total favorite pony; me! We're going to start things off simply, because we've got to get everyone's brains all warmed and fired up for the super fun trivia coming down later. So, here goes it:_

 _My character; Pinkie Pie, while not being a completely original character, was based heavily off of which generation 1 My Little Pony character?_ I'll even give you a super fun hint: this mare was nearly full of as much energy as I am! Almost. . . Anyways, come back after the break to find out which super awesome mare was the driving inspiration behind the Ultimate Party Planner of Ponyville!

And now a word from our sponsors (HAHAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding guys, as if anyone would actually be paying me to do this stuff! Just the thought has me in tears!)

Insert Generic advertisement from some large corporation looking to take your money for inadequate or utterly useless items/services.

Insert somewhat witty commercial advert from another company that you might have heard from at some point in your life, but have never really been sure what exactly they were about.

Insert a popular or at least marginally memorable commercial from a brand/company that either makes sense, has a helpful purpose, or is just generally above the rest in terms of quality and effort.

Insert a final advertisement that in no way holds any contest to the last commercial you just saw, in every single aspect, and it is so terrible that you briefly consider gouging your eyes out with a rusty spoon, only to get up to grab the spoon right as your favorite pony television series resumes, thus forcing your steadily numbing behind back in your chair.

 _CONFETTI everywhere!_ Confetti is literally bursting out of the screen as Pinkie slowly appears out of the shower of rainbow-colored paper scraps, a fresh drink held in hoof as she stairs at absolutely nothing in particular. A massive grin split her face. _"Welcome back to the show, everybody! Hope you enjoyed that lovely intermission, I know I sure did! With all of us here, I think it's finally time to reveal the answer to that piece of trivia before the break, and boy oh boy was this one spot on with the character. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's character Pinkie Pie was strongly influenced by the pink pegasus character 'Surprise' from the first generation of My Little Pony. Surprise is an excitable pony with an eye for fun, and one of the best friends anypony could ever ask for! I've even gotten my colors from the mare, as the joyous pegasus happens to have a bright pink coat and a curly pink mane and tail._

 _While there are many similarities between the two of us, I think we can all agree that taking things in a new direction was the right call, and while being a pegasus would be fun, I'm more than happy to be an earth pony. If I wasn't, I would have my current family, and without them, I don't know where I'd be! But that's enough about me and my past-version twinsie: Let's get back to this fun-tastic story with the alternate girls!_

The group of mares stood outside the Everfree Castle, gaping at the dilapidated structure that had once served as the ruling building and home of Princess Celestia. They were taking a brief break before entering, catching their breathes from a lengthy trek through the woods at night. Twilight could see the uncertainty in their eyes, she could almost feel their hesitation, but she knew that this was going to be resolved, one way or another.

"If ya really think we should be gettin' in there, ah'm sure we'll take care 'o anythin' in there, even if this whole trip was a fool's idea." The thick accent was something Twilight was certain she'd need to get used to, but it was of little concern when the speaker was as honest and straight-forward as Applejack was known to be. The others silently nodded their agreement.

"But we don't have to head in right away, if you don't want to." Fluttershy mumbled, hiding behind her mane as her nature quelled any effort to speak up. "It's up to you, though the animals back home might want to be getting up pretty soon."

"Darling, Fluttershy does have a point there, but it would be remiss of me to forsake my friends on such a perilous adventure into the unknown." Rarity trotted away from Fluttershy to look over the group, a gleam catching in her eye. "I, for one, do not wish to see this 'Nightmare Moon' reign over Equestria; to allow our friends and family to live through the night. I volunteer myself to face this threat with resolve, and to take the place of any of you who might find comfort elsewhere."

"Nice try, Rarity: but I'm not just going to bail on my friends like that!" Rainbow Dash smirked, crossing her forelegs across her chest defiantly as she hovered above the group. "Perilous adventures are my thing, and danger or not, I couldn't let you get your hooves dirty alone; I mean, somepony has to be there to verify that it actually happened once we get back."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the jab at the fashionista's apparent mysophobia, but was inwardly relieved that she had the support of her newfound friends through this ordeal.

"And when we do get back, I'm going to throw the biggest 'Saved Equestria from Eternal Nighttime' party ever! And I'm even going to invite Princess Celestia, because, duh, we've got to throw this thing right after we get done with the actual Summer Sun Celebration!" Pinkie bounced around the rest of the group in her usual manner, earning exasperated glances from the others, glances she thoroughly ignored as her mind turned completely towards planning the first party in what she was certain she would turn into an annual thing. "I'm going to need a whole bunch of streamer and confetti, and maybe I'll bust out the big party cannon! I haven't used that thing since, well, in a long time. Not since Rainbow Dash's birthday, at least. Oh, oh, oh,! I can get some of those new party games that I keep hearing the Cake's talking about, well, Mr. Cake talking about. But I think they need some special-"

"Pinkie, we get it: you're excited about planning a party! But we've got bigger issues to deal with right now!" Rainbow Dash dropped down in front of the rambling pony to get her to focus on the task at hoof, which was met with limited success.

"Then if we're all ready, might I suggest we go inside and find those Elements and stop Nightmare Moon's plans before they come to fruition?" Twilight asked, her trepidation at the daunting task fading from the knowledge she had five good friends ready to stand by her side in the face of adversity. Her question rand out across the small clearing they stood at, before each of the pastel ponies nodded, the six forming a line as they marched for the doors.

Nightmare Moon sat smugly on the ruined throne, confident that this time, there would be nopony capable of stopping her from claiming her rightful throne. All she needed now was for those mares to enter the castle and awaken the Elements of Harmony. As soon as she could get her hooves on the stones, she'd destroy them and forever remove the possibility of anything stopping her reign, but without the six approaching mares, she had no way of accessing the stones.

The only positive outcome from being banished in the moon for a thousand years was that she had learned to control her mind, to sharpen her senses and to drastically increase her levels of patience. Without her patience, she was sure she would have used her magic to tear this place apart looking for where that greedy weakling of a Princess hid the Elements.

The black and blue mare inhaled deeply, letting all thoughts save a relished victory and blissful arrogance fade into oblivion.

As all things would be, and all things were to be, those very same six mares trotting through the shattered doors to the palace, walking in strong resolve as they approached the moonlit throne. The dark Alicorn had to give it to them: they seemed eager to put an end to this nearly as much as she did, if only their interests had aligned, she was certain she could have used mares like these for her new republic.

"Nightmare Moon! We've come to stop you and put an end to your dastardly plans!" The purple unicorn in the center called out, sweetly steadfast in her belief, which amused Nightmare Moon immensely. "All we need are the Elements of Harmony, and then we can put you back where you belong1"

"Oh, and tell me little pony; where exactly _are_ the Elements, because I seek them as well, if only to watch them be ground into dust, and poured in a stream to be forgotten!" The Alicorn chuckled, feasting upon the fearful looks of the ponies before her, ponies so obviously, and justly, terrified of her. She savored the feeling of control for but a moment before the world itself came up with an answer as the mares fell short for her question.

A tremble filled the air, and the stone tiles separating the two parties began to tremor violently, knocking loose a few stones from the crumbling structure. The ground shook harder as two stone slabs slid underneath the remaining floor, and a circular mechanism rose from the ground. Nightmare Moon grinned victoriously at the five bright stones resting on golden plates across the device. . .

Five stones? Nightmare Moon's grin faded as she thought back to that fateful night a thousand years ago: hadn't Celestia used six?

"The Elements of Harmony!" The purple unicorn exclaimed. The Alicorn had little time to contemplate, for the unicorn seemed far more useful than any other pony, for her quick thinking had pulled the five stones from the pedestals, activating the mechanism within the device. Nightmare Moon was more impressed by the mare's initiative than the clever trick of hiding the Elements.

Though the impression vanished as the central orb holding most of the rings together split open, revealing a large purple star gemstone, amethyst if she remembered correctly. This fifth stone floated of it's own accord, drawn to the others as Harmony sought to right any imbalances, and flee the source of evil that the dark Alicorn exuded herself. Then, to her horror, it seemed the purple unicorn had started to figure out how to use the Elements; for they began to swirl around her, the stones glowing brilliantly as the unicorn powered up the banishment spell once more. Fear gripped Nightmare Moon like it had never grabbed that deplorable excuse for an Alicorn back when she first came into being. This was fear the likes of which she had never imagined possible: was she really about to be banished back in the moon? On the cusp of sweet, sweet victory, was she about to be robbed of this again?

The Alicorn's eyes shot open as the stones began to whip around the unicorn, a white tail encompassing each as they formed a ring of energy around the unicorn. Nightmare Moon had to act quickly if she was to prevent defeat, she just needed a plan of attack.

And her plan was simple: attack.

Firing a beam of magic, she hit the star Element, the Element that Celestia was so fond of back in the night. The effect was most desirable, as the unicorn cried out in surprise, the spell discharging itself and the stone falling to the ground as the central Element was smashed to nothingness. Nightmare Moon watched in glee as the remaining stones shattered upon hitting the ground, leaving nothing in her way of blessed victory. As the last stone crumbled on the floor, she couldn't help but let out an elated whoop, going so far as to even do a quick prance in victory.

"What just happened?!"

"What. . . why. . . how. . ."

"What can we do now?"

"How are we going to stop her?"

"What. JUST. HAPPENED?!"

'Uh. . . I don't think tape is gonna fix that."

The cries of anguish coming from the ponies below was like music to her ears, and Nightmare Moon had to stop her revels so she could bask in their defeat. She couldn't stop the mad chuckles of victory, but she calmed down enough to step down from the shattered throne, taunting the mares as she approached at a tantalizing pace.

"Not so confident without your precious stones now, are we?" She asked cruelly, enjoying the terrified stares she got as she stepped closer.

"Bah! We never even needed those stones to beat the snot out of you anyways!" The cyan pegasus shouted pumping her chest as she flew in front of her cowering friends, displaying a futile protectiveness that Nightmare Moon would enjoying breaking. But as she got closer, she saw something stirring between the girls, and the fear slowly escaped them, being replaced by stern resolve.

It was becoming a larger and larger concern with each step. They had lost; the Elements of Harmony were gone! What could they do to her now? She was going to be the only true Princess of Equestria! What could they possibly be so sure about?!

"Rainbow Dash is right." The lead unicorn stated with an air of authority that came out of nowhere, momentarily halting the Alicorn. "We don't need those stones to defeat you, because those weren't the Elements of Harmony!"

That got Nightmare Moon to stop entirely and stare, flabbergasted, at the mare, questioning the intelligence and sanity of her. She couldn't help but wear her completely confused face, even throwing in a cocked head to overly show that she had not made any connections for that statement. "Those _were_ the Elements of Harmony, the very same stones that your precious little Princess used to banish me in the moon a thousand years ago."

"No, they may have been the same stones, but the Elements of Harmony are more than just rocks, because rocks come and go. The Elements are far more, they are the very representation of the magic of friendship that brings ponies together, the essence of the world as we know it!" The unicorn stated proudly, nodding to her friends to join her. "You may have shattered their physical form, but the Elements of Harmony live on in ponies across Equestria, and I now understand why Princess Celestia sent me here to Ponyville in the first place!

"Applejack, you are the Element of Honesty, and I realized this because of your utter faith in the truth, and how you are always honest with the ponies around you, even if it may be undesirable." Twilight said, and as she did so, one of the broken stones rose from the ground, enveloped in a bright orange glow, the pieces pulling themselves together to form an unblemished gem. In a flash of magic, the gem was wrapped in a golden necklace, before forming the shape of an apple and placing itself upon the orange earth pony's neck.

"Rainbow Dash, you are the Element of Loyalty, because no matter how rough, how desperate, or how trivial a matter, you are always there for your friends." A gem was taken in a glittery crimson glow, before being fitted into another golden necklace, forming a thick lightning bolt and brought to it's respective pony's body.

"Rarity, you are the Element of Generosity, for whenever there was the opportunity to help others, you wasted no time in offering whatever you could, for others' happiness was always above your own." The white unicorn flashed a brilliant smile as a deep purple aura enveloped the gem and turned it into a sparkling blue diamond within a gold band and placed on the mare's shoulders.

"Fluttershy, you have always been the Element of Kindness, and that is simply because no matter the cost to yourself, no matter what it was over, you never questioned the value of others, and have always attended to their needs." A cozy pink gem this time, taking the form of a yellow butterfly with pink wings, and yet another necklace had been placed.

"Pinkie Pie, you are the Element of Laughter, and that stems from you ability to lift the spirits of others simply by being near them, and by bringing joy to the world through every strain and effort you can." The final shards of stone glued themselves together with a bright blue aura and taking the shape of a bubbly blue balloon in cased within a final gold banded necklace.

"And the last Element, the one that only serves to bring the others together, and to unlock the full power of Harmony: the Element of Magic. Princess Celestia asked me to come to Ponyville to make friends, and in doing so, I have become the aspect of bringing these wonderful ponies together in a bond unbreakable even by the likes of you, Nightmare Moon." The deep pink gemstone returned, unscathed as if it had merely been washed and placed on rags to dry. This stone seemed to retain its star shape, but the color deepened to match the color of Twilight's own cutie mark, and instead of earning a necklace, such as the others had, the Element of Magic was granted in the form of a glistening crown.

Nightmare knew she'd been defeated again, and this time, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Perhaps it would have been better to just ignore the Elements and seek to lure everypony away from this place, keep intruding eyes from stumbling upon the treasure. She sighed, knowing that there was yet another millennia to wait before she could exact her revenge upon Equestria for forgetting her. Magic auras whipped and soared between the six mares, empowering them and lifting them off the ground, fueling a spell to put the Alicorn back inside the moon for a thousand years. If only there was a way to break this and be free from all the anger and hatred that had clouded her mind for so long. So very long. . .

Then the beam of pure Harmony magic hit her, and destroyed her body. Things felt different than last time, perhaps it was that instead of being put inside the moon, Nightmare Moon may have wound up in some other prison? Tartarus? Some cell deep beneath the waves? It mattered not, for she had a long time to think.

And Nightmare Moon was no more.

Twilight watched in awe as the blinding light faded, and the spell finished, gently placing her and her friends on the ground. She was bursting with energy, now adorning the crown that was the Element of Magic: it had actually worked! She didn't quite think it would happen, but it did, and now they had dealt with a major villain!

She glanced around at he brightening room, looking at each face of her friends, and mirroring their happiness and joy equally. It wasn't for a minute or two before she realized that it was fast turning into morning, and that the eastern windows were glowing a bright yellow from the rising sun.

She scanned the room quickly, and upon seeing the source of the dawn, let out a loud gasp before dropping into a bow as Princess Celestia approached. Her friends soon followed suit upon realizing who had finally returned.

"Rise, my faithful student." The light alicorn said, smiling warmly at the overeager and ecstatic face of her pupil. "Twilight Sparkle, it would seem you have been making friends, as I asked of you, as well as finding and restoring the Elements of Harmony by unlocking their true power. I could not be more proud of you."

"Thank you Princess, though it was all under your instruction and guidance." Twilight humbly replied.

"No, Twilight. You did this on your own; I may have put you on this path, but it was you who decided to take the first step, and to continue down the road to see what may lie beyond the horizon." The Princess replied, pulling in the lavender unicorn for a hug. "I am so pleased to see that you finally made some friends, and that your bonds are strong enough to utilize the Elements of Harmony. However, while I would greatly enjoy discussing your trip so far, there is a matter of great importance I must attend to."

Before Twilight could ask what the matter was, the Princess turned away from the group to approach a lone blue figure, slumped on the ground, weeping. The figure wasn't always there, so Twilight was greatly confused over who it was, for nopony had come in during the ordeal, except Princess Celestia. The more Twilight studied the pony however, the more shocked she became, first by the larger stature than normal, then by the large wings, and finally, by a lengthy blue horn sticking atop the ponies head.

"Luna?" The name was uttered so softly that Twilight almost missed it, and the amount of emotion it carried only caught her interest that much more. "Are you alright?"

The weeping halted enough for the pony to struggled to her hooves, at which point she leapt straight into the Princess' waiting embrace. The act caught Twilight and her friends in even greater surprise, and it was a common thought among them that things couldn't possibly get any stranger than they already were. They were mistaken.

"Oh, sister! I'm so sorry! I'm so very very sorry!"

"Sh. Hush now little sister it's alright." Celestia seemed on the verge of tears, only adding to the general confusion passing around, which happened to be enough to cause Rarity to faint, and Pinkie to pull a notepad from her mane and jot down some notes. "Everything is going to be alright, you're safe now, you're home, with me. You're safe now, Luna. It's alright."

"Will you ever be able to forgive me, big sister?" The sniffled question hit Twilight right in the gut, and she wasn't even the target of the inquiry, but the emotional moment was wrecking her brain.

"I forgave you a long time ago, little sister. Will you come home with me, now?"

"Yes! Of course, I will, Celestia! I want nothing more than to come home!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"What an amazing start to the brand new series of My Little Pony, even if there were a few things that changed along the way." Pinkie cheerily bobs her head while munching on another fresh bag of popcorn. "I'm sure it would have been really interesting to see just how things may have turned out had everypony been that way from the start, especially with Twilight not being. . . well as Rainbow Dash loved to put it: an 'egghead.' It sure would make some things in this next episode not quite the same, though. . . so maybe we just keep those last two episodes between you all and me, and we won't have to let either Twilight or Rainbow Dash know that things could have been so different!

"Anyways, onto the next lovely trip down memory lane; this time going forwards just a little ways into the future, and still well within the first season. Some of you may guess the episode really quickly, because this one introduced a character a great many brony hath despised with all his heart." Pinkie sighed just a little, putting her popcorn to the side so she could stare directly into a camera to her right, her eyes sparkling with unknowable emotions. "And I won't blame all of you, because Fluttershy has been one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world for such a long time, and we all know that she is just the sweetest, kindest pony to ever grace Ponyville. . .

"Yes, I am talking about the episode that introduced us to the grumpy old version of Gilda the Griffon." A crowd gasps from absolutely nowhere. "Now I know we should all recognize that she's come a long way from then, and even if all the memories we have of meeting her weren't pleasant, some of us did have some amount of fun with her. _And_ we did manage to teach her the value of friendship, and even made Griffonstone a little less resentful and mean in the process."

Pinkie's mane poofed extra curls as she adorned a large smile, her signature happy-go-lucky smile. "So let's all enjoy this look into the past and remember that not everypony starts out the best friend anypony could ask for."

* * *

"Hoof-biting action overload! She was like a sun superstar, flying higher and higher, and then Rainbow Dash swooshed down" Pinkie bounced around the path excitedly, mimicking the pegasus to the best of her earth-pony abilities, flailing her limbs like they were trick-performing pegasi themselves. "SWOOSH! and right before she hit the ground: SHOOM! She pulled up!"

The bubbly pink pony exclaimed excitedly, making sounds that Twilight would have been greatly interested in discovering the source of, had the unicorn actually been paying attention. As it was, she was much too busy reading a rather bland book she had taken from the library to occupy her time. It wasn't really that entertaining or interesting, but the more knowledge a mare had, the better. "Uh huh."

Pinkie hopped into the air, still excitedly demonstrating exactly how awesome Rainbow Dash was in her performance, complete with elaborate 'wooshes' and lively flailing in the air. After several acrobatic maneuvers that would forever defy the laws of gravity, Pinkie paused a few feet above the ground, pausing so she could make sure she had Twilight's attention. With a final heave and woosh, the pink mare dropped onto the ground once more, panting at her own exertions. "And she did this amazing WHOOM!"

"Uh huh."

Twilight glanced up as to why Pinkie had ceased her energetic tale, figuring it out quickly as she watched a particularly famous pegasus fly by overhead, who also earned the attention of one of her adoring fans. "Hey, Rainbow Dash!"

The named mare glanced down to see who called her name, only to groan and roll her eyes upon realizing it was Pinkie Pie. She couldn't stop the muttering, not that she wanted to; "Pinkie Pie? Not again."

It was with a sudden burst of speed, the athlete took off, hoping to escape the machinations of her dear, dear friend. Pinkie wasn't having any of that, though, and began bouncing merrily after the pegasus, leaving Twilight to sigh in relief, flipping the page to continue reading in peace.

Rainbow Dash flew faster, knowing that a bouncing Pinkie was hot on her tail. Though she knew that she could easily just hit her top speed and pull some quick maneuvers to escape the mare, she wasn't really in the mood for advanced aerobatics. Pinkie was insistent, however, easily keeping pace with the pegasus, despite showing know apparent effort to do so. "Rainbow Dash!"

"Not now, Pinkie Pie!" She called, picking up her pace in just generally outdistancing the party pony. It did nothing, though, as Pinkie just kept on bouncing right below her.

"But-but, Rainbow Dash-" By now they had gotten close to the outskirts of town.

"I said not now!" Rainbow put as much effort into a burst of speed as she could, hoping to just plain rush away from Pinkie and find somewhere safe to nap. She got a single pump of her wings before a large, brown mountain literally appeared from nowhere, deciding that it really wanted her to take a nap on the ground. The impact was jarring sure, but the worst part was after she slid to it's base, Pinkie nonchalantly bounced up, a cheery tone in her voice.

"I was gonna tell you to look out for that mountain." The delivery more than anything irritated Rainbow, and she wanted to give a hot retort, but smacking her foreface into a mountain like that really hurt.

* * *

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhh . . . Skip!

* * *

Pinkie bounced along the roadside merrily, humming the tune of a song that only she had ever heard. She stopped her happy trek down one of the streets of Ponyville to ask one of it's residents, and in her usually chippy voice, sweetly got the mare's attention. "Hi! I'm looking for Rainbow Dash, have you seen her?"

Unfortunately, the mare only shook her head, though it didn't seem to bother Pinkie; what really did, though? She smiled and started bouncing around town again.

Bouncing along, she found her next friend to ask, none other than the much beloved Derpy Hooves, who was standing at a stand talking to the salespony. "Hi there! Have you seen Rainbow Dash?"

Derpy also had to shake her head, as it seemed that the athletic pegasus just didn't wish to be seen today. Pinkie wasn't going to be fazed, though, so she smiled, thanked the mare and continued along her way. As the bright pink mare made her rounds passed the Mayor's office and Town Hall, she came across Twilight, and if anypony was smart enough to find somepony fast, it was that genius. She called out loudly as she merrily bounced up: "Twilight! Have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?"

Twilight gave the pink party pony a confused look before glancing up at a cloud just above the buildings, where a cyan pegasus lay hiding, ears stuffed with fluffy cloud and her head half-way buried in the stuff. "Isn't she right up there?"

Pinkie gasped as soon as she saw her friend hiding in the cloud.

"Rainbow DA-SH" She called out in a singsong voice, though her call did have the effect of getting the pegasus' attention, it was more that Dash panicked, glancing around for any good hiding spot. Not seeing any, the cyan mare did the only thing she really knew what to do in emergency situations: fly. And fly fast!

She bolted from the cloud, completely obliterating it in the process, hurling herself as far from the pink menace as she could. Pinkie, meanwhile, took her much more sedated and happy bouncing pace, confident that she could catch up without much work.

Rainbow Dash bolted through clouds, leaving awesome speed holes that she totally would have been impressed by had she not been dealing with an emergency. She flew outside of town, and seeing that Sweet Apple Acres was just a mile away, bolted behind the Apple family barn, hoping to hide from Pinkie there. Surely the pink mare wouldn't have seen where Dash had gone, surely.

"Phew." Dash sighed in relief after checking the corner for a second, Pinkie never even had a chance at catching up to her. She turned to find somewhere to nap in peace, trying to get her heart-rate down. "That was close."

"HI!" Pinkie burst out cheerily, popping into existence right behind Dash, startling the pegasus so badly that her mane temporarily transformed into a fish's fin being electrified.

"AH!" Dash took to the skies once again, flying away from the pink mare with every ounce of speed that her super athletic wings could carry her on. As she made her way out of the orchards, her speed cause a breeze that ripped apples off of their branches, cascading the ground in delicious looking red apples. Pinkie, once again, decided to take the calm, effect, and happy pace of a merry bounce.

This continued for several more attempts before Dash finally succumbed to the inevitable and gave up. She dropped to the ground, sighing in defeat. "Aw, forget it!"

"I totally promise it'll be a lot of fun!" Pinkie beamed, waiving her flippers in the air in her typical exaggerated fashion, only inciting Dash to sigh again.

"Okay. . ."

* * *

"A little over to the right!" Pinkie called, using her fore-hooves to eyeball the distance the cloud Dash was moving over the entrance to Town Hall. She had to get it perfect for this prank to work. It had taken a little bit of effort to get to this point, but they were already running short on time. "No, no. A little to the left! Oh, wait! Back to the right!"

This had to be perfect, but Pinkie just wasn't happy with it. "Now, a little left-ish, while staying right! Stop!"

She tapped a hoof to her chin, trying to find the perfect spot for that cloud, even though they were almost there! If only Rainbow Dash could move it just a little more: "Maybe a few inches to the south? And now a couple centimeters north! Okay, one more smidgimeter to the-"

"Pinkie Pie!" Dash barked exasperatedly.

"Oh, uh. I meant: perfect! Now, wait for my signal!" Pinkie chuckled, ducking under the overhang and peering inside the window to the town hall, where an unsuspecting purple dragon was busy grabbing a load of sealed scrolls. Spike was busy humming a tune as he exited, much to Pinkie's joy as she waved a hoof excitedly towards Dash.

The pegasus, upon realizing just what was going to happen, swung around the cloud and bucked it as hard as she could. Her pegasus hooves causing the cloud to give off a jolt of lightning and a loud clap of thunder. The resulting boom caused Spike to jump back, startled by the noise, before finishing with the grand finale of a hiccup.

The sound of the baby dragon hiccuping was more than enough to send the two mares into a fit of laughter, and Pinkie couldn't help but comment on the great side effect this prank had. "Rainbow Dash, we scared Spike into getting the hiccups!"

"Good one Pinkie Pie!" Spike called, though his speech was broken by a constant stream of hiccups. "You're always pullin' a fast one on me!"

He reached down and started to pick up the scattered scrolls that Twilight needed, only for all his efforts to be halted when a series of hiccups started causing him to spew blasts of fire out. The green fire was charring the scrolls to crisps, sending them on their magical way. The sudden appearance of the bouts of fire made both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash yelp in surprise, though concern soon replaced the mood. Pinkie trotted over to comfort a friend, though she made sure to keep a safe distance. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Don't be silly; dragons are fireproof." Spike answered in between his hiccups, persisting in trying to pick up his mess. The two ponies nodded in acknowledgment even as more scrolls vanished from his breath.

"Oh, okay." Pinkie sighed, glancing at Dash. Neither one lasted more than a second before they burst into another fit of laughter. "Good."

Spike started jogging away, picking up each scroll individually, only to have the misfortune of a hiccup coming along just in time to send said scroll to Princess Celestia in a bright burst of sparkly green fire. After three, he had to stop to sigh in disappointment, though he had no choice but to persevere. "I just wish the same thing were true of scrolls."

"Have you seen anything more hilarious?!" Pinkie called out, rolling on her back as she fought back tears. Dash looked down on the rolling pink mar for a moment before she got a dark, wicked idea, though she had to play a cool face until it came true.

"Just one thing. . ." She added quietly, slowly backing up until she was right against the cloud, gently bringing her hind leg forwards. With swift movements, and while Pinkie was distracted humoring herself on the ground, she brought her leg back hard, slamming it against the cloud and sending a loud crack through the sky. The noise was enough to startle Pinkie into a quick yelp, which was appropriately followed by a bout of hiccups. The turn of events brought about the laughs from both ponies even harder, which grew exponentially with each hiccup. "I didn't take you for a prankster, Pinkie."

"Are you kidding?!" Pinkie asked in between hiccups. "I LOVE to pull pranks!It's all in good fun, and Pinkie loves to have fun!"

"You know, Pinkie Pie; you're not nearly as annoying as I thought you were. Say, do you wanna hang out?" Pinkie gasped, her eyes going wide as a happy grin split her face. That grin widened as she bounced around, speaking as she vanished in thin air, only allowing Dash to hear the occasional word from a sentence as she flew by. Dash rolled her eyes as she waited for the best time to stop Pinkie, extending her hoof in front of her. Pinkie attempted one more pass, only to find she slammed right into the pegasus' hoof, stopping her mid-sentence. "Just a simple nod with do."

With her excited nod, the two took off to a general supply store, purchasing a host of goodies that would make their day that much better.

"Do you even think she's home?" Dash asked, the two having taken positions behind a bush as they waited for Rarity to open the front door to her boutique. The pair of pranksters had left a nice little bouquet of flowers at the fashionista's doorstep, complete with a sweet little surprise. Pinkie shrugged at the question.

"I hope so; oh this is gonna be good!" She replied, the pair snickering at the potential of this prank. "Oh look, there she is!"

And sure as daylight, right as Pinkie said those words, the boutique door opened, revealing a curious Rarity glancing around for the ringer. The unicorn's eye was caught by some lovely flowers sitting at her doorstep, and she seemed overwhelmed with curiosity: she leaned down gently and took a hearty sniff.

Immediate regret was the apparent choice of emotion as she snapped back up, a dollop of bright pink powder dusting her muzzle. She gasped, sniffing at the strange powder whilst whimpering lightly. Pinkie and Dash giggled maniacally as Rarity began to sneeze rapidly, before taking off as the unicorn spotted them. As Dash bolted, she dropped a bottle of pony sneeze powder, which unfortunately released a cloud of dust that slapped Pinkie in the face.

Only through the power of Pinkie did Pinkie Pie manage to sneeze and, in a single burst, fly completely out of view.

* * *

Twilight studiously scribbled some notes onto her paper regarding the delicate potion she was brewing. Turning back to the mixture, she carefully poured one bottle into a second resting atop a Bunsen burner. As she turned back, she was mortified to find that the notes she had just taken had completely vanished! She looked worriedly around, wondering if she had just misplaced it, until her train of thought was interrupted by the potion behind her exploded.

She frowned as she tried to figure out what as going on, until a pair of ponies startled cackling like mad just outside her window.

Upon further inspection, she found both Pinkie and Dash hiding within the bushes just outside, with the latter holding up a bottle of invisible ink. The evidence proved that she was not mistake, simply the victim of a harmless prank, though it did nothing to alleviate her frustration. Yet, before she could outside and scold the two for interrupting her work, they bolted.

* * *

Applejack was just happy to get back to work after a short lunch in the barn, as she had already hitched up the cart and was all warmed up for some sweet apple bucking. She merrily walked out of the barn, pleased by the warm sun radiated her orange coat and the beautiful sight of shining painted apples-

She blinked, caught completely by surprise at the wool-knitted appearance her apples had taken, until the culprits behind this heinous act revealed themselves through malicious laughter. She turned to see both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash sitting beside the well, bearing painting hats and painting palettes. She glared daggers at them for what they had done, grabbing a hoof-ful of those very same bright colored apples and hurling them at the pranksters to leave the farm.

One such apple found itself within the water of the well, the paint thankfully washing off, leaving the farmer with a small sense of humor at the playful event that had happened: it wasn't really unlike Dash to do something like this from time to time.

* * *

Fluttershy always loved sitting outside while feeding the lovely aquatic animals. Today was no exception, though that mysterious multicolored animal that had a strange rope tied to it wasn't one of her regulars. Still, animals needed to be cared for, and she wouldn't let any suffer for it, so she happily walked over to the animal, unsuspecting of the prank about to come her way.

"Oh, hello there, friend. I don't think I've seen you around before." She began sweetly, smiling as kindly as possible to this creature. It showed no sign of responding, so she figured she'd try her other approach to frightened animals. She crouched real low and silently inched up to it, looking as harmless as possible. "If you don't mind me asking, just what kind of creature are you?"

Nothing. It seemed she was going to have to try harder, but for any animal's sake, she wouldn't let them down.

She gently reached a hoof out to the creature, which appeared to be some kind of. . . turtle/frog/lizard thing with buttons for eyes. Upon realizing this, she gasped and stepped closer to it, then shrinking as she realized she may have scared the poor creature. "Oh my. Are you okay? I've never seen an animal with button eyes before."

As she worried over this strange creature, she was oblivious to the prank war happening just on the other side of the lake. Though it wasn't until after the two pranksters had left that she finally figured out that this thing was not in fact an animal, but was just some washed up toy. That did make her feel a little better.

* * *

The following morning, Pinkie was super duper excited for the pranks she and Dash were going to do; so excited, in fact, that she even got her best game-day pranking outfit ready. Happily trotting over to the pegasus' house, she called excitedly for the day to commence. What she was not expecting was a to peak it's head out over Dash's home, or for Dash to already be up and about, with said Creature.

"Morning, Pinks." Dash greeted with a smile as she also poked her head over the side, then flying down to introduce Pinkie to this strange griffon. "Gilda, this is my gal-pal, Pinkie Pie."

The griffon, apparently by the name of Gilda, dropped down from the cloud house without even opening her wings, simply showing off how awesome she was. Pinkie immediately knew this was a friend of Rainbow Dash. Immediately. Gilda gave Pinkie a once-over before looking away nonchalantly, brushing a claw against her brown chest feathers. "Hey, what's up?"

"Pinkie," Dash got the pink pony's attention. "This is my griffon friend, Gilda."

"Cool. What's a griffon?"

"She's half eagle, and half lion." Dash explained, with Gilda puffing her chest out arrogantly.

"And all awesome." Gilda proclaimed loudly, granting Dash a quick hug before the two parted and did their best-friend hoof/claw shake. Pinkie was totally blindsided by this revelation, though the blows didn't stop there.

"Gilda's my best friend from back in my days at the Junior Speedster flight camp." Dash explained to Pinkie, pulling out a flag from said program before tossing it to the griffon. "Hey, Gilda: remember the chant?"

"Duh. They made us recite it every morning. I'll never get that lame thing out of my head." Gilda responded sarcastically, brushing a talon against her coat while trying to avoid the gleaming pink eyes of her best friend. Unfortunately for the egotistical griffon, Dash was very pumped about reciting the "lame" chant, going so far as to raise her eyebrows and roll a hoof for them to proceed to the chant. It took a second, but Gilda finally realized what was going on, though she was far less enthused by the idea. "Only for you, Dash."

Without any further prompting, the cyan mare launched into the air, chanting with as much spirit as she gives to her workouts: "Junior Speedsters are out lives;-"

Gilda followed along with significantly less enthusiasm after a short delay, and even her "spirited chanting" was lackluster.

"-sky-bound soars and daring dives!" Dash performed a multitude of spins and twirls, which Gilda might have "attempted" to copy, but she wasn't really into the whole thing. "Junior Speedsters, it's our quest, to someday be the very best!"

With a flourish, the pair dived to the ground and landed in poses of awesomeness, though Gilda wore her usual indifference to the act. Pinkie started giggling like mad at the show, while Dash fixed her mane and did her best to look absolutely awesome. Gilda, on the other hoof, or claw, seemed really disappointed with life itself for having to have suffered through this ordeal one last time. "Oh, that was awesome! And it gave me a great idea for a prank!"

Pinkie slammed her face into the dirt, where her previous headgear had dropped, not even bothering to pick it up like a normal pony.

* * *

 _Hey, who says I even have to be a normal pony?! HUH? HUH? My friends like me just the way I am, and everypony in Ponyville is more than happy to have such a wonderful party planner and amazing prankster such as myself in the town!_

And we all adore you because of it; even if you have a habit of breaking reality and going on pranking wars with Deadpool across Youtube.

* * *

"Hey, Gilda, you game?" Pinkie asked in her bubbly voice. The invite seemed to shake Gilda a little.

"You know, I love a good prank as much as the next griffon, but Dash and I have a bit of a private flying session she promised me, so. . . catch ya next time?" And with that, she took off, leaving the aforementioned mare to defuse the situation, though Dash seemed completely ill-prepared for the task.

"Yeah. . . uh. . ." She began halfheartedly, rubbing her neck with a hoof. "Well. . . Pinkie Pie, you don't mind, do you? Gilda just got here and we were hoping to do some catching up. Maybe we could catch ya later?"

"Oh. . . um. . . sure, no problem! Have fun you guys!" Pinkie answered dejectedly, her ears flopping onto her masked head as she watched her plans fly away with that griffon. They were still in sight, so she figured she'd get in a final word or two before they left. "I'll just catch up with you guys. . . later."

Feeling particularly down that her plans for the day were now ruined, she decided to take a few minutes to think over what she was going to do now. Perhaps a nice cold milkshake was just the thing she needed to conjure up a plan. So with a new approach to her dilemma in mind, she put on a brave face and started trotting back to Ponyville proper, though the beginnings of a new idea were already starting to sprout for her.

Meanwhile Dash and Gilda had busied themselves with a friendly bout of competitive aeronautics and aerial acrobatics, performing daring dives and loops, racing barrel rolls and steep climbs. Eventually, Gilda touched down on a cloud, giving her wings a chance to rest while she searched the skies for her friend.

It was actually Dash who found Gilda first, making her presence known in the form of a blur blur slamming into the very cloud Gilda was resting on, sending tufts of the soft material everywhere. As Dash unrolled from a fuzzy patch, the two began to giggle like mad. "Just like old times, eh Dash?"

"Yeah!" Dash cheerily replied, rolling onto her back and spreading her wings out, giving her a chance to catch her breath. "Only we're so much faster now!"

There was a pause as both regained control of their breathing, then Dash spoke up again: "What now?"

"HI GUYS!" Pinkie burst into view excitedly, poking her head up through the cloud before vanishing below it again. Her voice only came through as she appeared. "It's later. . . and I caught up!"

Dash looked genuinely happy to see her friend, after all: it had been some time since she'd seen Pinkie. Gilda, though, was far from happy to have this little get-together interrupted by the pink menace, made apparent by the daggers she glared towards Pinkie. She looked to the pegasus. "Hey Dash, think you still got enough gas in the tank to beat me to that cloud?"

"A race? You are so on!" Dash replied hotly, flaring her wings and crouching to take off, momentarily forgetting about the pink pony bouncing on a trampoline just below. "ONETWOTHREEGO!"

The two took off like launching like a pair of missile sailing directly for a distant cloud.

The pair gave it their all, pumping their wings to the max to see just who truly was the faster between them, coming to a very close ending as they both exploded through the cloud, leaving little of it remaining. Dash called out victoriously: "I won!"

"As if!" Gilda remarked disdainfully. "I won, dude!"

"No way!" Dash argued, and the two got into a heated debate over the true victor, unaware to the creeping Pinkie floating on pink balloons just behind them.

"Wow guys! That was really cool!" Pinkie proclaimed, flailing around wildly, though she was hardly secure in her spot. "But I think Rainbow Dash beat you by just a teensy-weensy little hair. Or a teeny-weeny itty-bitty feather!"

"Oh yeah!" Dash exclaimed loudly. "Good thing Pinkie Pie was here to keep you honest, huh G?"

Gilda was tired of this pink pony here interfering with _her_ good time, so all she had to do was keep Dash away from her, perhaps by simply going higher? "Alright, you won this one Dash. Tell you what: last one to that cloud way up there is a knobbly dragon egg!"

The two soared up, leaving a cloud in their wake, which dissipated, revealing an upset Gilda waiting in the dust. "I think the high altitude is making you dizzy."

The malice in her voice was sharpened as she began to pop Pinkie's balloons, one by one, until Pinkie began to descend to the ground. Once Gilda was certain that she had dealt with Pinkie, she rocketed up to meet Dash at the cloud, planning to give this to the egotistical mare anyways, sighing in relief as Dash hadn't seemed to suspect a thing.

"Phew, that was close!" That bright, cheerful voice was beginning to really drill Gilda's nerves. She turned to glare at the pony who was now flying some weird sort of contraption up to them. "You guys almost got away from me that time!"

"Hey, Dash? Got any new moves you want to show me?" Gilda asked nicely, finding a way to distract her long enough to deal with Pinkie.

"Pft. What kind of question is that? You want to see something new and awesome? I got new and awesome!" With that, Dash flew off to do some of her favorite stunts for Gilda, who was busy ringing Pinkie into leaving them.

"Can't you just take a hint? Get lost loser! Dash has a cool friend in town now, and I don't need you geeking up our style. Why don't you do us all a favor and just buzz off!" Gilda said grumpily, grabbing Pinkie's machine by its propeller and sending her spinning uncontrollably towards the ground.

Dash landed on the cloud, gloating about her awesomeness before asking where Pinkie went. Gilda just shrugged. "She left, saying something about being as busy as a bee."

"I don't know Pinkie, kind of sounds like Gilda isn't really that bad." Twilight said, flipping through her book in the library. Pinkie huffed, but continued her pacing in the back.

"What?! She has been keeping Rainbow Dash from me! She popped my balloons! She even called me a loser and told me to buzz off!" Pinkie huffed.

"And while it wasn't nice of her to say that, I have to stand by my point that it sounds more like she is just trying to enjoy her time catching up with a friend." Twilight said, putting her book away to look at her friend. "Do you really want me to be honest here?"

Pinkie nodded solemnly, with Twilight sighing at what she knew she had to say. "Pinkie, I think you may just be jealous. Just because Rainbow Dash has another friend doesn't make Gilda a grump, though she may be difficult to get along with."

Pinkie gaped at Twilight, staring as though the unicorn had declared herself the new queen of Equestria. "J-Jealous?!"

Shaking her head and stammering to get her thoughts together, Pinkie stormed out of the library, furious at the implications. Maybe all she needed was some time away from her friends so she could clear her head and find some kind of solution. She trotted through the streets of Ponyville, mind buzzing as she deciphered the situation. Maybe all she needed was yet another milkshake to settle her decisions, a cold path for her to contemplate this issue.

So, an hour later, with both Dash and Gilda soaring overhead, Pinkie settled outside Sugarcube Corner with one such milkshake, glaring at that big meanie griffon. She watched as the two shared some words, then Gilda dropped from the skies and into the market, nearly slamming into Fluttershy, who was distracted with helping a family of ducks move through town.

Gilda never even stopped until she hit the pegasus, knocking Fluttershy onto her flank in the process. "Hey!"

"Oh, um, excuse me." Fluttershy immediately mumbled before she had even turned around, though she was in for a surprise when she did, as Gilda towered over her.

"I'm walking here!" Gilda spat out, leaning in closer as the buttery mare backed up slightly.

"Oh. I'm sorry; I was just trying to-" Fluttershy began, her anxiety was bad enough around nice ponies, but this mean griffon, for she recognized Gilda as such, was more than enough to frighten her out of her mind. Gilda was having none of it.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Gilda began in a mocking tone, towering herself over Fluttershy to be as intimidating as possible. She spat out everything she wanted to say as venomously as she could: "Why don't you just watch where you're going, doofus?! Other creatures are trying to go about their day, and here you are hogging the road! MOVE!"

Fluttershy recoiled as if Gilda had actually hit her, though the words stung much, much worse. She started stammering, hoping to defuse the situation by explaining that the ducks needed to be moved to a new home, but before she could get a proper word out, Gilda inhaled sharply, cutting off any response simply, then following up with a fierce roar, scaring Fluttershy worse than a public appearance. The mare starting crying as she bolted out of the market, flapping her wings meekly as she tried to fly away, though her terror prevented any such movement.

The crowd gathered around her gasped in horror as they watched what had happened, though Gilda didn't care at all, until she tried to take off, complaining the whole while. Before she could leave, Dash stepped out of the crowd. "Gilda, what was that?!"

"What?" Gilda scoffed, as if this was nothing more than an inconvenience. "That pony was in my way, so I told her off, you know; like we used to in school?"

"That _pony_ is my best friend: Fluttershy!" Dash growled, doing her best to control the rage building up under her skin. "And you crashed into her, she was not in your way. Fluttershy is the kindest pony you will ever meet, and you have no right to treat her that way! Also, I never treated anypony like that in school: I stopped ponies from treating others like that!"

"Oh please. Maybe you weren't as cool as I thought you were." Gilda moaned, acting like she was the better creature here.

"If this is your idea of 'cool,' then I want nothing to do with you." Dash said, the rage in her voice dripping off into an icy venom. "Get out of Ponyville, and don't even show a tail-feather here unless you've come to apologize!"

Gilda actually looked shocked for a moment, but then she put on her 'cool' face and scoffed, brushing a talon against her chest before launching herself into the air. "Maybe I didn't want to be here in the first place."

And with that, she took off soaring into the clouds, leaving a distressed Rainbow Dash to attempt to placate a horrified Fluttershy.

* * *

"Dearest Princess Celestia, Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice. Though it's impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior. Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and one who's true will surely come to light.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"And as the series progresses, we find more and more new and interesting characters that will prove to be some great challenges for us!" Pinkie beamed, rocking around in her chair while she admired the screens and television crews around her. "At the time, we sure did think many of these ponies weren't really friendship material, but wow are we glad that we learned that nopony is beneath becoming a good friend.

"This episode shows one such character; one we thought irredeemable and would have to wait for so much growth before we were finally able to reach an understanding. I am, of course, speaking about the sixth episode installment of My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic: the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

* * *

"Come on Twilight, you can do it!" Spike cheered on from the side, watching as the lavender unicorn's horn flared up while she charged her spell. This spell in particular, while more of a trick, had stumped her the first couple of times she'd tried it already, but now she felt certain that she knew what she was doing. Her concentration focused harder, and a blinding white light filled the room for the briefest of flashes, then a pulse of magic restored their vision. Twilight sighed in relief, hopefully glancing at Spike to see if the trick had turned out how she had planned.

Spike tentatively looked down passed his nose, and his eyes widened in joy as he beheld the beautiful new mustache now being sported on his lip. She giggled as he ecstatically began to twirl the fine black piece through his claws, the young dragon dashing back to a checklist with over two dozen items listed. He picked up a marker and scratched out one towards the bottom. "Ha ha! You did it. Growing magic; that's twenty-five! Twenty-five different types of tricks, and counting!"

Twilight was a little flustered by his praise, especially with the dragon usually being so reserved and critical.

"Onto the next one, which I'm sure you'll figure out in no time!" Twilight was grateful at how quickly he changed the subject, though the moment he saw himself in the mirror, it seemed that he had forgotten entirely to claw over the scroll to her. He chuckled to himself as he continued to twirl the mustache in his claw, using his free one to snap at his reflection.

"And I am looking _good_." He he nodded while doing another once-over of his appearance, smoothing out stray scales as he found them. "Hello, Rarity. Hm? What's that? Oh, this is nothing, just my new, awesome mustache that Twilight got me!"

Twilight did always enjoy it when Spike dropped his doomsayings every now and then to act like the foal he was, which is why it was particularly difficult for her to cut away at his time to enjoy the new look. She lit up her horn as he turned to her. "I'm sorry, Romeo; but as attractive and enticing as you look, this was just for practice and it's gotta go."

Spike seemed to deflate a little as the mustache glowed a faint lavender, curtesy of the unicorn's magic color matching her coat, but the loss didn't bite until the mustache was truly gone, followed with equal parts magic popping and a baby dragon sighing. And as much as it sucked for Spike to miss out on something as fun as a large, new mustache to wear around town, Twilight much preferred having her number one assistant the way he always was. "Alright, Spike, toss me the next scroll so that we can try to make flowers grow instantly!"

He grabbed the top scroll from among a pile that she had had him designate for practice earlier, this one being the typical red-ribboned scrolls that she used for her fancy spells. The scroll had barely left his had before she had it enveloped and magic and pulled on over to her, whipping the ribbon off in a heartbeat and peeling the thing open.

Her eyes quickly scanned the contents, a brow furrowing on her face in concentration as she tried to grasp the concept. Spike was a little worried about that look, but after suffering the most recent lost of such an amazing mustache, he chalked it up to her insane concentration skills.

"Okay. . . ready Spike?" She sighed heavily, preparing herself to cast another complicated spell, though her hesitation was damped when he nodded enthusiastically, popping a flower pot down between them so she had something to work with. Closing her eyes in concentration, her horn lit up brighter than before as the spell began to take form in her head. It wasn't long before she gathered all the energy she needed, though she silently thanked her photographic memory for that, and then she cast the spell, clenching her features as the wave of magic passed through her skull and out her horn.

There was a loud pop as the magic ball hit the pot, then a startled yelp from Spike that meant that something must have gone wrong. Unfortunately for Twilight, she was unable to figure out what as she had blacked out. . .

* * *

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhh . . . Skip!

* * *

Twilight awoke with a groan, cracking her eyes to see Spike panicking over her, presumably freaking out that she had overextended herself. She was off put by it though, she couldn't quite remember the last time she'd blacked out due to magic overloads, and this wasn't exactly the kind of spell that would do that to her: most ponies would have been able to do this back at Canterlot. All she had done was make a slight change to the spell for a more colorful variety of flowers. She sat up with another groan, but the pain was quickly subsiding, so she looked to Spike, who was still freaking out. There was an intense ringing in her ears, so she couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but that was minute compared to the more glaring issue.

Something about Spike had. . . changed. She didn't know what it was, but he definitely seemed different than before, which would have explained why he was freaking out: though the difference wasn't clear to her yet. She rubbed her ear with a hoof, standing on three others shakily, when Spike finally seemed to realize her condition.

He dashed over to her, placing a steadying claw on her side, looking at her with sparkling pink eyes full of concern. His compassion towards her was always the greatest, and she shared a brief smile while returning the look. . .

'Pink eyes.' She realized, looking down at the baby dragon, which had taken a few more physical changes as well. She blinked in surprise, seeing a tiny pair of wings sprouting from his back, and a much smaller snout, with super adorable fangs jutting out from under his lips and a bunch of lovely lashes around his eyes. His deep purple scales seemed to glow with a vibrant pink sort of sheen.

"Spike?" She asked, grabbing his with both hooves as her shock overrode every other feeling in her body. "Spike what happened to you?"

Instead of answering with words, he simply held out the scroll in a clenched claw, which she took with hesitant curiosity, carefully glancing at the very top of the scroll. Her trust in his choice of scroll had left her carelessly missing that this was not the spell she had wanted to cast: this spell was more along the lines of a gender transformation spell. The revelation was horrifying for her, because this was an untested spell that she hadn't been able to properly measure the safety concerns for.

There was a tick in the back of her mind celebrating that she had cast such a revolutionary spell, though it was dwarfed and silenced by her concern for her dear Spike. Quick apologies were made, and though he seemed more shocked than anything, she considered herself grateful that there wasn't any major psychological damage to him yet.

Still, she was worried that any prolonged presence like this might mean permanent damage to his psyche, and that was more than enough motivation for the pair of them to rush towards fixing the problem. Twilight's first proposed solution was to cast the spell again, in hopes that a second casting would just reverse the effects. And while she was nervous about the amount of magic she would be using, nothing was too much when it might help Spike, so she readied herself for another wave of magic. Spike patiently waited for her to cast the spell, nervously rubbing his claws together while doing so.

"Ready?" She asked, to which he nodded rapidly. Inhaling sharply, her horn lit up as she gathered all the magic she could, focusing the spell in her head and harnessing everything she needed. After a second of heavy focus, another flash of light filled the room, and a loud pop resounded across the library.

Once the light had faded, Twilight glanced towards Spike, worrying over the lack of energy drops for her, leading her to believe the spell was a dud. Sure enough, as her eyes readjusted to the normal light levels of the building, Spike was his abnormal, pink-glowing purple female dragon self. With her ears drooping, she sighed and walked over to him, pulling him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Spike. I didn't want this to happen, but I promise you: I will find a solution to this! There are a ton of books in this library, surely I'll be able to find something in here!"

He returned the hug, though internally, he doubted that she was going to find anything really helpful. Still, he was not going to give up and let himself be stuck like this: if Rarity saw him. . . he had no idea what he'd do.

And so, he ignored his trepidation towards finding a solution in favor of being Twilight's number one assistant and helping her scour the library for anything of use.

About an hour and a half into their search, with absolutely nothing to show for it, Twilight groaned, slamming her head onto the book she had just finished scanning. Spike looked up from his own pile, though he couldn't read as fast as her, he knew that he could at least help her by moving old books and helping her get new ones. He'd just finished moving a stack to her table when she made her feelings about the affair known. "Still nothing?"

"No. I can't seem to find anything at all." She sighed, picking her head up to look forlornly at her poor little Spike. "Perhaps I should go get us some hay burgers for lunch. Maybe some food is just what we need."

"Uh. . ." Spike shifted nervously, twirling his tail like he had done to his mustache earlier, an action he often did when he was embarrassed or nervous. He looked back at his smaller, though existing, wings, and the pink glow that permeated in his scales, before glancing at her with fear in his eyes. "Are you sure we should head out, I'm not exactly famous in Ponyville, but ponies do know who I am and what I look like. What if they see me? What if ponies start making fun of me because I look like a shiny filly's pet?!"

"Spike." She calmed him down with a sympathetic smile. "If you don't want to go outside, you don't have to: I'll just run down the the burger place and get us something to eat, then I'll be right back. You won't even notice I'm gone."

"Really?" He sniffled, fighting back a single fearful tear, leaping at her to give her a huge hug when she nodded her affirmation. He squeezed her tightly for a second then backed off, escorting her to the door so she could be gone and back without any further delays, as his stomach felt like it was about to complain for food any moment now. Twilight giggled as he did so, but she let him have his moment, the pair of them hoping this was over sooner rather than later.

"Alright Spike: I'll be back in just a few minutes, so how about you start organizing this mess we made so we don't wind up rereading several books that won't help us?" He nodded at her suggestion, though it was clear he was anxious to slam the door shut before anypony walked by and saw him in his state. Sighing to herself, she turned and started trotting through town, hoping that the hay burger place restaurant wasn't too busy.

Crossing town had proved to be simple enough, and she was eternally grateful that most of the usual occupants of the place were elsewhere, meaning she was able to just walk in an place her order. And her food arrived even more quickly once she hoofed over the bits, thanking the lovely mare at the register before immediately turning to leave. She had made it about halfway out the store before two little colts started shouting as they bolted passed.

She recognized them as Snips and Snails, two of the. . . less bright colts that went to school here. They made a mad dash running around, nearly slamming into some random passerby pony. The pony managed to dive out of the way before the pair of colts tripped over each other and fell to the ground. Twilight trotted over to them, using her magic to pick them up and dust them off. "What's going on?"

"Why, haven't you heard?" Snails began, perking right up at the chance to spread this news they seemed to be super enthused about. "There's a new unicorn in town!"

Snips decided to throw in his piece of the message at that point. "And they say that she's got way more magic power than every other unicorn EVER!"

That little bit of boasting got Twilight's ears to flop back against her skull once more, as she back off shyly. "R-Really? Where is this unicorn?"

"Oh! She's down in town square!" Snails grunted, pulling both Snips and Twilight along towards the mentioned location. "Come on!"

0_0

Set up on a large platform before the town hall, a massive crowd of ponies stood watching in awe as a wagon began spewing out unbelievable quantities of pyrotechnics. Twilight gasped at the grand display, working her way to the front of the crowd, where her friends were also standing, staring curiously at the display. Before she had a chance to greet them, a loud, resounding voice echoed across the crowd, cutting clean through the explosions and whistles of a flashy show. "COME ONE, COME ALL!

"COME AND WITNESS THE AMAZING MAGICAL POWERS OF THE GRRREAT AND POWERRRFUL TRRRIXIE!" The crowd gave a general acceptance of the grand entrance, the baby blue unicorn waving her hooves around in dramatic fashion. "Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of pony magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!"

Another round of excessive pyrotechnics burst off, leaving with several of Twilight's friends with a sinking suspicion in their stomachs, as well as leaving more than one of them unimpressed with the overly dramatic performance. Once in a while would be fine, even exciting, but they all knew exactly what kind of show this was going to be. So, under the cover of flashy lights and loud bangs, Rarity commented to her gathered friends: "My my my! What boasting! Oh, hello Twilight."

"Hello Rarity."

"Where is Spike?" She asked nicely, offering the lavender unicorn a friendly smile.

"Oh. He, uh, is home." She frantically tried to come up with an excuse before another blast of fireworks startled her free. "He's sick right now. There's nothing wrong with being talented, is there?"

"Nothin' at all, 'cept when someone goes around showin' it off like a school filly with fancy new ribbons." Applejack commented, turning a frowning look upon Trixie, who was busy summoning a bouquet of flowers from nothing. Twilight picked up that none of her friends were too impressed by this showpony anymore. Rarity nodded.

"Just because somepony is good with magic does not make them better than the rest of us." That comment, while she was sure was not said directly to hurt her, made Twilight cringe internally, fearing that at some point, word might spread of her abilities and her friends would shun her. She did consider herself lucky that at that point, Rainbow Dash got their attention by making a typical Rainbow Dash comment:

"Especially when you got me around being better than the rest of you." The arrogant phrase got Applejack to come down hard on the cyan mare, who winced at the death glare the farmer had given her.

* * *

" _What do you mean 'typical' arrogant Dash. . ." Pinkie gasped, the static screen of Rainbow Dash leaning away from Applejack starting to warp and wave as Pinkie jumped up from the bottom, revealing a stern, then thoughtful expression. "Okay, nevermind. I see where you are coming from, but you better watch yourself 'Hinterland Seer,' I'm on to you. Rainbow Dash knows what she's good at, and I'm only giving you a pass because this was before we really had a chance to work on her ego. Just. This. Once. Though. If I ever catch wind of you saying meanie things like that to any of my friends, or anypony really, you and I are going to share some words!"_

* * *

"Eh-I mean. . ." Caught in the act, the rainbow-maned unicorn chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "yeah, uh, magic shmagic. BOO!"

It seemed that their conversation had drifted beyond the duration of any form of loud distractions, as Trixie just waltzed up to the edge of the stage of stared down towards the girls. "Well, well, well. It looks like we have some neigh sayers in the audience."

Her words were punctuated with a lively neigh right as she got to that word. "Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie?! Do they not know that they're in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?!"

Rainbow Dash, being her usual, egotistical self, couldn't help but snort, before finally blowing a raspberry towards the mare. While most of her friends shared the mentality, they didn't actively seek to provoke this new unicorn quite like she wanted to, it appeared. Rarity, however, did mumble to Twilight about the issue: "Just WHO does she think she is?"

Trixie smirked at Dash's display, using her 'powerful' magic abilities to blast several more bursts of pyrotechnics into the air, resulting in an aggravating display of smugness that not even the pegasus could stand. Doing so was such an affront to Dash's own ego, that she actually soared into the air, flying right into the unicorn's face to confront her, complete with air quotes and everything. "So, 'Great and Powerful Trixie," what makes you so awesome anyway?"

There was a faint chuckle from the unicorn.

"Why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the DREADED. URSA. MAJOR!" There was a loud boom as a very special, though apparently preconceived firework shot into the sky, exploding in a cloud of sparks resembling the night stars. The shape took the form of the named fiend, as a large blue bear with a star on its head. The audience loudly gasped in awe at the claims to such a feat, one so very few ponies ever had the luxury of claiming. "When all hope was lost, the wonderful ponies of Hoofington had nopony left to turn to, and the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in to save the day!"

Another firework went off, this one containing some of Trixie's magic in to manipulate it so that a poor resemblance of the mare was now waving a wand at the vicious image of an Ursa Major. "And with her awesome magic, vanquished the Ursa Major back to its cave in the Everfree Forest!"

"Awesome!" Snips screamed victorious, leaping on the stage to pull Rainbow Dash back down to the crowd. "That settles it: the Great and Powerful Trixie is the real deal!"

Snails soon joined him on the stage, declaring with passionate glee: "Trixie is the greatest, most magical unicorn in all of Ponyville."

Snips only had a single response to that: "No. She's the greatest, most magical unicorn in all of Equestria!"

"How do y'all know that!" Applejack spoke up, surprising many of her friends, though they realized that, her being the Element of Honesty, probably felt that something was off with this. "None o' y'all was there when this was s'pposed ta happen. None o' y'all saw a thang!"

"Why, are you truly calling me a liar! Well, I can assure you; all of this is true, my enthusiastic little admirers." She responded with a haughty laugh as she continued to bombard the audience with grand displays of her stockpile of pyrotechnic explosives. "The Great and Powerful Trixie certainly is the best in Ponyville!"

There was a long moment of silence, where the cheers had gone, as it seemed that the few voices that stood up against her had disillusioned the crowd to her claims. So, after that silence, Trixie took a look of confidence and glared out into the crowd, before her gaze fell upon Twilight and Rarity, the two unicorns. "Don't believe me? Well, then I hereby challenge you, all of Ponyville! Bring your best magic users and I will prove to you: anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers? Anypony?

"Is there truly nopony willing to attempt the impossible, or is Trixie destined to be the greatest pony to have ever lived?" Another grand display from the egotistical mare, who was desperately trying to compete with Rainbow Dash for the highest esteemed title. There was another pause, and it seemed that the two mares Trixie had been hoping would stand up were going to keep silent, and she didn't want to lose in front of the crowd, so she pointed to Twilight after a moment's pause. "Hm. How about you?"

* * *

" _Hiya all! Pinkie back for the super long and boring commercial. But before we get into that super boring, though necessary stuff, I'd like to take a moment to share a little message from pretty much everypny out there. It was thanks to the wonderful viewer, you guys, that this show had so much success, and all us Ponies in Ponyville, well all of Equestria really, have so much to thank you for: it was your devotion and encouragement that made us who we were, and what brought us to our current standing. It was also all you guys out there in the Brony fandom who made many of these super awesome stories and ideas possible. This fandom has brought so much life to the series, and us ponies would love the chance to thank you for all the support and love you've given us!_

" _And now that the super sappy stuff is over with; onto the fun stuff! Today, during this fine commercial break, I wanted to give you guys another relatively simple trivia question, though it will come in two parts: here goes the first._

" _Princess Luna kick started the series as the very first villain of the fourth generation of My Little Pony, appearing as the heinous Nightmare Moon. However, neither characters were finalized until rather late in development, and as such, they have some interesting character tidbits you can find about them. The first question is this: Due to the later finalization of Luna's character, what was her original name going to be?_

" _The second trivia question is similar in idea to the first, but still revolving around the first episode and her antagonist/villain. This time, we look to Nightmare Moon, the inspiration of many absolutely beautiful works of art in music, literature, film and digital media. However, this villain also had an entirely different concept behind her, as well as another simple, yet formidable name. Who here remembers the original design of Nightmare Moon's character, and what was that name going to be?_

" _While you think about those fun little questions regarding the best Princess in Equestria, lets take a look at our (not) sponsors!:"_

Insert random super boring commercial that leaves your brain the moment it ends.

Insert incredibly long, super useless ad for some strange contraption that kids will never know the use of.

Play trailers for a brand new movies from a great series with amazing mythical creatures that will most definitely be on our 'must watch' list.

Insert a horribly deflating ad that follows such an amazing movie trailer.

" _And commercials are over!" Pinkie squeals with glee. "So, now we can finally answer those fun little trivia questions that I'm certain at least most of you might have answered, seeing as how they come from the best Princess and one of the more original villain concepts to come out of films and shows recently. I'll skip the silly intermission stuff and get to the answers I know you've all been just dying to here._

" _The answer to the first trivia question is this: Princess Luna started out being known and Princess Selena. What a shocker that would have been! But things only get more crazy from there, because during the original writing for this series, Nightmare Moon was going to be a tad different, with the original idea leaving her as the now infamous 'Discord!'_

" _Just try to imagine that: Princess Selena going mad with jealousy and turning into Discord to overthrow her sister! Such a weird way things could have ended." Pinkie sighed, taking a sip from a mug of coffee. "Anyway, let's get back to the episode to see how the hay Twilight is supposed to beat Trixie_ and _fix Spike!"_

* * *

"So, what will it be? Does anypony here have anything they can do the the Great and Powerful Trixie can't? Twilight gulped, weighing her options. She was desperate, but she doubted that this traveling showpony had enough magic to solve her problems. Dash interrupted her train of thought by accepting the challenge.

The pegasus did a series of complex maneuvers involving a mill that spontaneously appeared in Ponyville (Pinkie, explanation?), several rain clouds and a dash of raindrops. After soaring above the sun, making everypony stare in awe, she looped back through the busted remnants of several clouds and slammed down on the stage with a perfect landing. A moment later, the rain she'd collect showered over her, and in the sun made a dazzling rainbow appear above her. "They don't call me 'Rainbow' and 'Dash' for nothing."

"Let's see about that." Trixie replied smugly, her horn lighting up and the rainbow that had dazzled above Dash warped and enveloped her in a tornado of colors. After the crowd had a good laugh about it, Twilight was sure that this unicorn was going to be a problem, and decided that she might be able to solve two problems at once. She teleported back to the library, grabbing a surprised Spike, before popping back.

"I've got a challenge for you!" She declared triumphantly, using her magic to hold Spike aloft. "It's a simple spell, really: just cast the spell to change this dragon's gender, and with somepony as powerful as you, this would be a piece of cake."

"Oh, such an amateur spell." Trixie scoffed,waving a hoof around to show her lackluster amount of care. "Why would the Great and Powerful Trixie waste her time doing something so simple. Next!"

"What? Afraid you can't do it?" Twilight was risking a lot on this, but she knew that she was going to prevail.

"Hardly. I just-"

"Then prove that you're better. I've already cast the spell twice, but I suppose I should also remind an amateur like you that dragons are naturally resistant to most magic, making any spell cast on them doubly hard."

"Very well. I'll prove my superiority." Trixie scoffed, though Twilight could see the sweat beads forming on the mare's brow, which was both relieving and saddening. Twilight had genuinely hoped that this unicorn would have been able to perform the spell, to succeed where she had failed, but it seemed like that was for naught. She knew she'd have to find another way to help him.

"Spike?" Before Rarity could gasp in horror, Trixie's horn lit up, and a beam of magic hit the dragon, though nothing happened for a moment. Trixie waited for a moment, then beamed proudly, flaring her cape like she was the greatest pony in Equestria.

"I have done it! This dragon has successfully been turned to the proper side!"

"Which is?" Twilight asked smugly, knowing she had Trixie now.

"Why, this is now a female, of course." Trixie never would understand just how lucky she was with her guess, but nopony would have a chance to do anything before Spike shrieked in horror, dashing away flailing through the crowd like a crazed lunatic. Twilight winced as she caught the glances of her friends, knowing she'd have to explain the situation to them after the show, though Spike was a much bigger threat right now. She dashed back to make amends with him, leaving the rest of Ponyville to gasp in wonder at the false trick Trixie just profited hugely from.

* * *

After severe condolences were had, and a fierce explanation for her friends, Twilight and Spike had an awkward sit down with them, trying to form a plan to stop Trixie, that was. . . until the shaking began. They all exchanged curious glances between each other, the repetitive thumping in the ground turning confusion into worry. Wondering just what was going on, they all made their way out of the building, though Spike had his reservations about doing so. They had barely made it out of the building before both Snips and Snails bolted passed them. Twilight called for them to stop, but they were in too large of a rush.

"Can't talk right now. Got a MAJOR problem." Snails called as they dashed by, though Snips was slower to catch up with his slower legs.

"Yeah, URSA Major, to be exact!" The shorter colt called before they vanished into town, presumably to get Trixie. The six mares and dragon exchanged worried looks before following after them, the deadening drum of a massive beast lumbering towards town. "TRIXIE!"

The two colts pounded on the unicorn's door until she opened it up, groggy and obviously irritated at having been woken up. However, that irritation soon morphed into fear as she heard and felt the loud quakes that followed the Ursa as it towered into town. "Trixie, we need your help vanquishing this Ursa major!"

"What?!" She gasped, turning to face them. "What happened?!"

"We figured you could prove how great and powerful you were by vanquishing this one too!" Snails replied happily, and something about this situation, either how satisfied the colt seemed with himself, or that an Ursa Major was lumbering through town, angrily charging towards the two colts, caused the unicorn to snap. She shrieked with dismay, shouted nonsense to the two colts before making a dash for cover behind some buildings, shouting lividly how she had made up the entire story and how she had just wanted to sound super cool.

The revelation left the two colts flabbergasted, as they found themselves facing a very big problem, and their idol filling them with lies. Spike rammed Twilight in the side to get her attention. "Twilight, you have to do something!"

"But-" She looked to her friends, who all bore terrified expressions at the lumbering beast now towering over them, growling at the colts with droll dripping from its gaping maw. She didn't know what to do, but she knew that _something_ had to be done. She stepped forward, earning the Ursa's attention, her horn flaring to life as she charged up some energy, still completely uncertain what she was going to do. She knew her time was limited, and without any time to form any kind of strategy, she let instinct take over.

Out of her control, but through her magic, a sort of spectral wind picked up, carried towards the colossal beast by her spell, powered by a surge of magic she hadn't felt in a long, long time. As if this was something she was born for, the magic intensified, ripping at reeds and pulling at trees, making everything reach towards the Ursa.

There was a shift in the world, and as the reeds snapped, a soft lullaby began to float across the skies, so soothing that it seemed that even the stars were destined to sleep. This was a form of magic so pure, so primal and perfect, it was a stroke of fate, something to remembered across the ages. The song carried itself with such grace, such beauty, that the world seemed to be the flowing water that trailed behind the perfect swan. The Ursa seemed to react in kind, like this pure melody, this combination of a unicorn's magic and the very fabric of reality, was equal to its mothers soothing voice. Its eyes drooped and the entire creature seemed to rock gently, teetering on the verge of falling over. Twilight's horn surged in power, illuminating the whole town as her magic _picked up_ the Ursa and carried it across town and back into its cave in the Everfree Forest.

After the heavenly music had faded like a distant memory, the town was left gaping at the feat Twilight had just performed. Everypony returned to their dwellings then, but not before each pony offering a sincere thanks to her, and well after running Trixie out of town. Though the town was saved, and Twilight and her friends had each called it a night and separated to their own retirements, something kept Twilight awake.

Deciding that she would benefit from writing a letter, she pulled out her quill and a parchment, finely detailing her thoughts to the Princess.

 _Dearest Princess Celestia,_

 _Today I learned that it is easy to over-exaggerate one's abilities, and to be far too boastful about them, while it is also easy to fall into not giving yourself enough credit when it is due. Though we all have our own strengths and shortcomings, I learned that it is always important to just be honest about who you are, to both yourself and others._

 _\- Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle_

 _P.S. I may have accidentally cast a gender-swapping spell on Spike, and I might need you help in figuring out how to reverse the issue._

That morning, both Twilight and Spike received a surprise visit from the Princess, who was more than happy to help Twilight fix Spike's little problem, as well as getting a fresh recap on how her studies were going.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

" _Welcome back to the show, everybody!" Pinkie exclaimed, momentarily frowning as she realized she forgot to refill her popcorn, until she shrugged it off and pulled a fresh bag out of her mane. "I do so hope you all enjoy these prolonged breaks, because that hope is all that keeps me from beating the ever-loving cra- I mean from politely knocking on mister Seer's door and asking him just what he's been up to. Either way, we're back to the usual of glancing into this lovely little universe where things turned out differently._

" _And for this next episode, we get to introduce some pretty darn amazing fillies that just about everypony can adore!" She beamed proudly, pointing a hoof wildly at the large blank screen that had been moved in behind her. "So I'm not going to detain any of you any longer: let's see just how things have changed for these adorable little fillies!"_

* * *

"All right everypony, time to settle down; we have a very important lesson to discuss today!" The maroon teacher said as she slowly stepped into class, the rowdy students calming down and sitting back in their seats. Cheerily smiled her warm smile, the one she wore every day when she was with these foals, and stepped towards her prepared display board. "Today, we are going to talk about cutie marks."

There was a resounding groan from many of the students, vocalizing their displeasure at such a topic. A purple filly with a blue tiara for her cutie mark slammed her head on the table. "Boring!"

"Like all ponies, I wasn't born with a cutie mark; my flank was blank." Cheerilee flipped the front page of the presenting board, revealing two pictured taped to the blank page, one covered by the other, which appeared to be a picture of the teacher when she was a filly. The groans had quickly been replaced by awing foals, which became silence as she flipped to the next picture, one of a dancing teenage Cheerilee, now sporting her cutie mark: three smile sunflowers. "Then one day, when I was about your age, I awoke to find that I had my cutie mark."

"Look at her mane!" One of the students smirked from the back, though Cheerilee looked unfazed by it.

"I know, I know; but that was how everypony wore their mane back then. I had decided to become a teacher, and the flowers symbolized my hope that I could help my future students bloom if I nurtured them with knowledge. The smiles represent the cheer I hoped to bring to my little ponies while they were learning. Now, can anypony tell me when a pony earns their cutie mark?"

Several students glanced around nervously, though an excited student waved her hoof in the air wildly, bouncing up and down in her seat. "Oh! Oh! When she discovers that certain something that makes her special!"

"That's right, Twist." Cheerilee nodded, smiling greatly that her students were learning these important lessons. "A cutie mark appears on a pony's flank when they find that certain something that makes them different from anypony else. Discovering what makes you unique doesn't happen overnight, and no amount of hoping, wishing, or begging will make a cutie mark appear before it's time."

While Cheerilee was going on with her lesson, the purple filly had begun to fold up a piece of paper, and once she had finished her item, she began to discreetly try to obtain poor little Apple Bloom's attention, though the yellow earth pony was studiously taking notes. It did take some time, but eventually, the purple filly gave up being discreet and let out a ostentatious 'psst' in her effort to get Apple Bloom's attention. The latter filly, finally realizing what was going on, turned to see what Diamond Tiara wanted, though she knew that it probably wasn't all that good. Diamond Tiara tossed her the note, though it came as a surprise and dropped to the ground, the antics catching Cheerilee's attention.

"Apple Bloom! Are you passing notes?!" Cheerilee asked, upset that her valuable lesson was being interrupted, and began to trot over to the stunned filly, who was stammering to get out a response to the rapidly escalating situation. "Just what could be so important that it couldn't wait until after class?"

Cheerilee bit down on the note and propped it open in her hoof, revealing an empty page. "It's. . . blank?"

"Remind you of anypony?" Diamond responded, with malice in her voice, and the entire class laughed realizing the filly was making fun of Apple Bloom's distinct lack of a cutie mark. Cheerilee returned to teaching class, grateful that no other distractions happened, though Apple Bloom was pretty dejected at the ridicule. She sat silently through class, though she had lost her vigor for notes.

* * *

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhhh. . . . Skip!

* * *

Once the school bells rang, the entire class practically bolted from the single room schoolhouse, many giggling and cheering as they had a whole day of fun planned. Not Apple Bloom, that prank Diamond Tiara pulled on her had reminded her that she had yet to bloom, so to say, and was still just a blank flank. So, she had hoped to just run on home after school, trying to avoid any bullied along the way, until she was stopped by Peppermint Twist, who was happily munching on a peppermint stick. Once she had noticed Apple Bloom looking all sad, she trotted up to her, reaching into her saddlebags for another. "Want so sweets? I've got some peppermint sticks; I made them myself!"

"No thanks." Apple Bloom said, sighing as she picked up her pace, hoping to get home sooner, though Twist stayed right at her side.

"They'll make you smile!" Twist insisted, leaning against the yellow filly, though Apple Bloom simply shook her head and grunted her refusal. Unfortunately for Apple Bloom, the delay had been more than enough for Diamond Tiara and her best friend, Silver Spoon to catch up, the two wealthy fillies complaining about the lesson.

". . . I mean; waiting for your cutie mark is _so_ last week." Tiara said, raising her voice as she passed by the other two, though she paused just long enough to continue to the torment. "You just got yours, I just got mine, we all have them already."

Peppermint rolled her eyes, sparing a quick glance at her own bare flank, but didn't have a chance to do anything before Tiara was staring her down. "Well, I mean almost all of us have ours.

"Don't worry, you're both still invited to cute-ceañera this weekend." She said while she backed off, motioning for her and Silver Spoon to leave, though the two left with noses held high in the air, proud of the celebration happening for them. Silver Spoon was quick to leave, making it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the blank flanks, and Apple Bloom had a feeling that it was because she thought herself better for having a cutie mark.

"It's going to be awesome." Were the only words that Silver Spoon decided to say to both Apple Bloom and Peppermint Twist.

They heard the two pompous fillies exclaimed giddily as they left: "It's a party celebrating _my_ cutie mark, how can it not be?"

And the sound of spiteful laughter could be heard across most of town, or so Apple Bloom thought, as she found the sounds irritable. She sighed and muttered to herself about needing to go home, hoping that Twist understood, then trotted her way home.

* * *

After working out in the fields for some time, Apple Bloom still didn't feel like she had worked her frustration out of her system, so she turned to the one pony she knew could help; her big sister. Once she had found her, she explained the situation and began to vent hoping that Applejack would provide either a solution or at least a listening ear while she whine. The explanation only got her worked up, though, and she found herself pacing. "It's not fair! It's just not fair!"

"Don't get yer mane in a tangle; you'll get yer cutie mark eventually, everypony does." Applejack stated, the whining starting to grate on her, which turned out to be the wrong thing to say, somehow, as it only fueled Apple Bloom's irritation.

"But I don't want one _eventually_ , I want one _now_! I can't go to Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera without one!" Apple Bloom cried out.

"'Course ya can." Applejack said, gathering the final apples but turning to look at her sister. "Ya know, I was the last one in my class to get a cutie mark, and Ah couldn't be prouder of it. I knew it was my future to run Sweet Apple Acres, and these bright shiny apples sealed the deal. Come to think of it, Granny Smith was the last in her class too. Huh, so was Big Macintosh."

Apple Bloom grumbled and trotted over to the bucket of apples, kicking one out and pushing it across the orchard with an angry hoof. "I don't see how that's supposed to make me feel any better; it probably means that being the last one in your class to get a cutie mark runs in the family."

And with that, she gave the apple one final kick before trudging up to the bucket of apples and sliding herself against it; flopping her head down on top in exasperation. Staring off into the distance while a new though, a new approach to her dilemma, wormed its way through her head. Runs in the family. Runs in the family. "Runs in the family. . . Runs in the family! Runs in the family! You've got apples for your cutie mark, Granny Smith has apple pie for hers, and Big Mac has a half apple!"

She jumped up and started running around in circles excitedly. "Mine must've got somethin' to do with apples! Apples! Apples! Apples! Apples!"

In her excitement, she began to do circles around the bucket of the named fruit, happily exclaming how she knew her destiny would end for her cutie mark. That excitement was full and complete. . . until she slammed head-first into the nearest apple tree, causing Applejack to wince, and a few apples with wings to circle above her head for a moment. Though the impact put her on her flank, she refused to allow anything to dampen her mood now that she knew what she was going to do in life. This determination manifested in her smiling happily, despite being groggy from the crash, and chuckling to herself. "Apples."

* * *

Later that day, once they had gotten the harvest done for the day, Applejack took her little sister to the market so they could sell the surplus, with Apple Bloom thinking for sure that apple-selling would be her cutie mark. Applejack made her supplies well know: "Come get your delicious, nutritious apples here!"

That was where the problems really began; with Apple Bloom being far too hyped up for the job by balancing a green apple atop her head. "Delicious and nutritious! And so many uses; you can eat 'em, play with 'em, create fine art for your home with 'em. You'd have to be crazy to not to get a bushel of yer very own!"

Each example of a usage of an apple was demonstrated, with her munching down the first, tossing the next in the air and slamming it with a tennis racket, the third was bucked across the marketplace to a random pony's blank canvas, all the while the nearby ponies panicked at the brazen mayhem that followed. The splattered remains of the racketed apple sped across town, shattering a window and causing a startled yelp from a poor elderly mare. The painter was less than enthused at purchasing any apples, and his paint brush was now coated in apple juice.

Thankfully for most of Ponyville that day, Applejack realized just how much energy her sister had real quick, and snatched her back to their stall before she caused any more trouble. She nervously turned to the mildly upset ponies around them. "She's so creative, heh."

Apple Bloom was having none of it, however, and the next pony, who was happily trotting through the market in search of some spare sockets for a new project, was her next intended target. "You, sir! Care t'buy some apples?!"

He blinked at her in surprise, but never once did he slow his pace. "Uh. . . no thanks?"

"Why not?" She asked, in what was probably an honest question, though her persistence was the most notable aspect at that point.

"I have plenty at home." His reply was gentle, but firm enough that he figured she'd leave him be.

She didn't. She had no intention of it when this could be the very thing to earn her a cutie mark. "Are you sure?"

"Y-yes I'm pretty sure. . ."

"You're 'pretty' sure, but not absolutely, positively, completely, super-duper sure, are you?" She asked, practically teleporting into every side of him that he was using to try to escape, now that she had made her determination clear to him. Before he had a chance to reply, she began staring him down, as if accusing him of evading her question, forcing him to slowly back away, a worried frown planted over his muzzle. Lucky for her, she had worked him back to the other side of the cart, which his flank bumped into, catching his attention.

"Uh. . . If I buy some apples, will you _please_ leave me alone?!" He begged, her complete focus bringing up severe anxiety for him. That turned a switch on her, and her focused staring flipped to a beaming smile.

"Alright!" Her sparkling orange eyes shot open to see him sifting through his saddlebags, then tossing a hoofful of coins directly into Applejack's unsuspecting bib pouch. Applejack glanced in surprise to see Time Turner making off with a single, shiny red apple clamped between his teeth while he barreled through the crowd, clearly fleeing from her little sister. She tried to call out to him about his change, but he was long gone before the words left her mouth, which wouldn't be said about Apple Bloom, who was cheering loudly at her victory.

"That is how you sell some apples and get a cutie mark!" The filly cried happily, spinning in place as she tried to get a good look at her flank, hoping to admire her new cutie mark for selling apples, one that was quickly apparent was not even there. "A shining bag full of apples? A satisfied customer eatin' an apple?"

When she realized she was still blank on the flank, she started to think of other ways to earn a cutie mark. She glanced at a purple earth pony with several fruits for a cutie mark sniffing at the apples, a new idea in her head. "You touch it you buy it! We take cash or credit."

The mare recoiled back in fright, shivering at the determined, almost smug face of the filly set on selling every apple they owned. Applejack jumped to the mare's rescue, pulling Apple Bloom away from both her and the apples. "Ah'm so sorry, ma'am! Ma'am!"

The mare got right out of there the moment she could, not buying a single apple that she had hoped to. "Now, Apple Bloom, you can't just-"

Said filly had just dumped an entire bucket of apples into Bon Bon's saddlebag, proudly beaming once she got the mare's attention. "That'll be four bits!"

"I didn't put those in my bag!" Bon Bon replied in stark surprise, the saddlebag now drooping on the ground with the added weight of that many apples.

"Likely story." Apple Bloom said rolling her eyes as she held out a hoof, barely getting any more words out before Applejack came in to stop the madness. "Four bits, lady-"

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack said with a sternness she had yet had to use on the filly, stuffing her own hoof in the filly's mouth to prevent any more damage on the her part. She turned to the Bon Bon, who was glaring at the rude behavior from Apple Bloom. "Ah am really, really sorry about that; she's new. Here; take these, no charge."

She filled the mare's other saddlebag with apples, but when Bon Bon frowned at the extra apples, clearly unhappy with the situation, Applejack just threw in more, hoping to satisfy here somehow. Two saddlebags full, and Bon Bon was just staring at her with an incredulous expression, making Applejack so nervous that she grabbed the last bucket of apples and tossed it onto the cream-colored mare's back, also free of charge. Bon Bon was clearly worried about the apple farmers, so she just gave them a false smile and trudged off, barely able to keep herself standing. "Y'all come back now, ya hear?"

"What?" Apple Bloom asked at the glare now being sent her way by her older sister, who realized that they were now fresh out of apples to sell.

"Sorry li'l sis, but yer apple-sellin' days are over." She bent down and pried the apron off of the filly, who gasped in shock.

"What?! But how else am I gonna get my cutie mark?"

"Home. Now." Applejack said sternly, but her expression softened when her sister remained there, a hard pout on her face. "Listen, sugarcube; Ah know it's hard to wait for yer very own cutie mark, but ya just can't force it. 'Sides, yer not even fully grown up yet. Ain't there other fillies in yer class without one?"

"Well. . . there is Twist." Apple Bloom replied slowly.

"D'you think you'd feel better goin' to the party with her?" Apple Bloom nodded, grunting in affirmation. "Well, then there ya go! Bet you and Twist will have a great time together! Now run along and go find yer friend."

* * *

Apple Bloom knocked on Twist's door, excited that her big sister had found a solution to her dilemma, taking the pause before the filly answered to admire the lovely flowers decorated all over the building. It was more fancy than the Apple farm house, but at least it wasn't like Sugarcube Corner, and retained some sense of modesty. Twist came to the door pretty quickly, offering a flashy smile when she saw her friend. "Oh! Apple Bloom, what's up?"

"So, I was thinking that we could go to Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera together; I don't have a cutie mark, and you don't have a cutie mark." Apple Bloom said, a touch shy about her blank flank still. At the mention of cutie marks, though, Twist's smile vanished, and she shifted around nervously, but after a moment to think, she stepped in front of the door, revealing two peppermint sticks crossing her flank. The world froze for a second for Apple Bloom, who could only stare in dejected horror that her friend had gotten a cutie mark before her. Twist stepped into the street so she could explain.

"Isn't my cutie mark swell?" She asked, her nasally voice suddenly bright and excited that she had a passion to discuss with her friend. "I've always loved making my own favorite sweets, but it took some time to figure out that it was my super special talent. Pretty sweet huh?"

"Yeah. . . pretty sweet." While Apple Bloom _was_ happy that her friend had found their special talent, she couldn't hide the disappointment that her plans for the party were ruined. She plopped on the ground with her ears flat against her head, which Twist immediately picked up on, and stepped forward to comfort her friend.

"Hey, this doesn't mean we can't go to the cute-ceañera together." She added with a warm smile. "You're still going to come to the party, aren't you?"

"Of course she will." Tiara said in an extremely patronizing tone, raising her nose in the air while Silver Spoon carried a similar position.

"It's not like being the only pony there without a cutie mark will be, like, the most embarrassing thing ever!" The silvery gray filly chimed in, leading to the two ponies laughing mockingly at the embarrassed apple farmer filly.

* * *

 _It's time for another super boring but super needed commercial break!_ Pinkie's screams can be heard throughout the multiverse, I am more than certain. _Ooh, I just can't wait to see what we have in store for the fate of Apple Bloom and the original Cutie Mark Crusaders: I'm nearly bursting. But we all know that this is a necessary part of the show, and actually gives us a moment to breathe and refresh ourselves, so let's do just that. After the break, I want to read some fan mail sent in by our adoring community._

Insert some boring, if different commercial about a disease that is easily preventable and had nearly been killed off before idiots wanted to contract it to fight "the system."

Insert some bland advertisement from some large corporation looking to take your money for inadequate or pointless items/services.

Insert an absolutely awesome teaser trailer for a new game in a long line of very successful and incredibly fun games that have been around for 25 years.

 _And now that we've heard from the spokespeople coming from places large and small, let's get to talking to you all, our wonderful fandom. I have a few letters sent in from you amazing guys that I wanted to read, and hopefully answer a few questions. The first one comes from a mister Devildog, who asked: "What do you think about the released information regarding the last season of Friendship is Magic?"_

 _Hmm, that's a good question, Devildog. My answer would have to be that I am super duper excited and can't wait to see just how this amazing story is going to be closed, even if I am sad that all of us in Ponyville are going to go our own way._

 _Our next question comes from an anonymous person in the fandom, or maybe it's Anonymous? Well, either way, they don't seem to have a question per-se, but it reads: "OMG, I'm so sad that MLP FiM is ending, why is everything going down the drain?! This is the saddest thing ever! We had built up such a community! We actually had a thing going!"_

 _I couldn't agree more, but sadly, not everything lasts forever, and not even this wonderful land of Equestria must fade away eventually. But rejoice in the community we built up, and never forget that, while Friendship is Magic is ending, the next generation of My Little Pony is just around the corner, so to say._ Pinkie forced her frown away with her usual smile. _Even though Equestria is being split up, she shall live on in our hearts and across the forms of creation this lovely community created._

 _And with that, I think it is high time that we got back to the show and rejoice in what we've all become, and fondly recall those days so long ago!_

* * *

Dejected and feeling hopeless, Apple Bloom was happy to rest underneath the massive, dark cloud that visualized her mental state. Rainbow Dash came along, noticing the out of place structure and happening upon the source. She popped through the cloud to see her friend's sister glumly sitting about. "Looks like somepony has a dark cloud hangin' over their head. Let me do something about that!"

She quickly busted the cloud, leaving a grumbling filly still sitting there, resisting her efforts. "What's the matter, kid?"

Apple Bloom hesitated, then unleashed her frustration, whining and complaining about her impatience of getting a cutie mark, stating that she believed her sister and all, but with the upcoming party, she felt like she needed to get hers now. Rainbow Dash listened quietly, then thought it over for a second, finally proposing a solution by offering some speedy-style advice, in the fashion that the fastest pony in Equestria would give. After short words, She picked Apple Bloom up and took her off to a distant field to train. "The key here is to try as many things as possible, as quickly as possible. One of them is bound to lead to your cutie mark. Are you ready?"

"Ah'm ready!" Apple Bloom said, having finished her stretching and prepared to do the training course that Dash had set up for her. With a loud blow, Dash had her try juggling, leading to a failure. Then hang gliding: failure. Karate: failure. Kite-flying: failure. Ultra-pony roller derby: failure.

At the end of the day, she had burned through an extensive list of super awesome and athletic tests for the filly, but nothing had positive results. As the filly began to doubt whether she'd get any cutie mark ever, Pinkie approached with a solution, happily bouncing to the rescue by proposing for her to eat cupcakes, something Apple Bloom was thrilled to try.

'Eating' cupcakes turned out to be 'baking' cupcakes, which ended in spectacular failure, only reinforcing the filly's despair. Though Pinkie was thrilled that they'd made improvement, Apple Bloom would only lament her shortcomings to the next pony she saw. Enter the most unfortunate, if concerned, Twilight Sparkle.

It wasn't until after Apple Bloom had explained the situation had that Twilight had a chance to speak: "I still don't follow-"

"You can use your magic to make me a cutie mark!" Apple Bloom cried out excitedly, beaming and begging, raising her voice and desperation with every refusal that the unicorn made. They went back and forth with the "no's" and "please's" before Twilight finally relented, casting a spell that she hoped would get the begging and whining to stop. And for a moment, she succeeded: Apple Bloom had a moment of elation with a cart full of apples on her flank, before the image faded into her yellow fur.

"I tried to tell you: each pony must find their cutie mark for themselves." She said, frowning when Apple Bloom shot into her face.

"Try again!" She did so reluctantly, and when that image faded, again. And again, and again, and again. She burnt through multiple potential cutie marks, many of activities the filly had tried previously, until she had no energy left to try.

"I told. . . you: you can't make them appear." She gasped for breath, sweat pooling on the floor around her.

"Forget it: there's just no way I can go to. . . that. . ." She looked around, somehow missing the fact that dozens of ponies had filled into the Sugarcube Corner while she was busy, and now finding herself in the middle of a full-blown cute-ceañera. Panicking, she did her best to escape, using every trick she'd learned growing up on the farm, diving to and fro, using every scrap of coverage to hide from everypony around her, ducking under cakes, slipping into groups of balloons, sweeping under tables. Eventually, she had a clear shot for the door, using a table supporting a rather large punch bowl. She could actually see the open doors, and the paths just outside that meant she was free to escape, if only Pinkie had reminded her that the party was here, now, and that the pink party pony was hosting it!

The named mare bounced under the table, greeting the scared filly with a bright smile and slapping a party hat in front of the filly's iconic red bow. "Don't forget your party hat!"

Before Apple Bloom could utter a response, the mare was gone, flashing away in a puff of smoke to perform acts only she was capable of comprehending. Apple Bloom ripped the hat off, hoping to escape without any further complications. . . which came as soon as she bolted for the door: in the form of a bright, grinning purple and green dragon. "Oh, hey Apple Bloom! I'd heard that you weren't going to make it to the party, but I'm glad you're here!"

She panicked, trying to work around him so she could escape, feeling the cool breeze blowing through her mane, a sign that freedom was just there! But alas, Spike grabbed her foreleg and pulled him with her to the punch bowl atop the table she had just hid under. "I'm kind of hoping that you wouldn't mind hanging out with me, seeing as how I don't exactly have a cutie mark either. . ?"

That gave her a little pause, and she cast a quick, curious glance to where he might have had one, which revealed plain purple scales, and nothing more. She was about to comment on her observation, but a biting, grating voice called out through the general noise directed right at her. "Well, well, well. Look who's here."

She whipped around to see both Tiara and Spoon marching towards her, with evil grins as if closing in on somepony weaker than them. She panicked, not hearing anything that came out of Spike's mouth as she tried to evade this escalating situation. Finding no options of escape, her next thought was perhaps to defuse anything from becoming more serious, and she ripped the tablecloth off and tied a quick dress out of the pink fabric. Silver Spoon glared daggers at the makeshift dress, venom dripping in her voice: "Nice outfit."

"It's uh . . . just something that Ah put together last minute." She chuckled nervously, elbowing Spike as he raised a claw to add his opinion to the coversation.

"Well," Tiara began menacingly, almost as if teasing her into misspeaking. "it definitely shows off your cutie mark. . . oh wait: you don't have one."

"I have a cutie mark!" She replied instantly, though her heart felt like it was coming out of her chest at the sheer weight and importance of that lie. The pair of fillies teasing her actually recoiled, as if her words had physically struck them, leaving Silver Spoon gaping in surprise.

"What?! When?!"

"Since, um . . . earlier this morning." She said, scanning the room for any means of causing a distraction so she could flee and have this behind her. Spike gave her a confused look and opened his mouth to object, only to find that Apple Bloom's hoof had been fully shoved inside it, silencing him from blowing her fib.

Tiara glared at her. "Oh, really? Then let's see it!"

"I shouldn't. I couldn't." She quickly put together something that would feed the other fillies' egos just enough that they'd hopefully back off. "My cutie mark is some unbelievable amazing, I'm afraid that if I show it off, ponies would start paying attention to me instead of you. Out-shined at your own cute-ceañera? Can you imagine how embarrassin'' that would be?"

"Forget it." Tiara grumbled, taking the bait. "I didn't want to see it anyway."

Before anypony could respond, or more importantly: before Spike could, Apple Bloom decided now was the best time to get out of the confrontation. "Well, I'm gonna go, uh, mingle now."

Right as she stepped away, the tablecloth dress caught on something behind her, and as she stepped forward, the dress snapped, revealing her defiant blank flank. There was a record scratching somewhere, and literally everypony turned to see what had caught Diamond Tiara's attention, thus seeing Apple Bloom, cutie mark-less and all. To her horror, and to the sadistic glee of both Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, this was the perfect opportunity for some petty vengeance.

The pair of fillies approached her, chuckling madly and staring her down. Silver Spoon took the moment for herself, chuckling the words out hotly: "Wow! That _is_ a remarkable cutie mark! Nice try, blank flank!"

At the mere mention of a bare rump, many of the ponies gathered around began to chuckle and murmur amongst themselves, pointing at the exposed pony with unbridled mirth. Then, like saviors descending from the heavens above, a voice called out to the bullying fillies from the crowd, and everypony turned to look at a pair of fillies, one unicorn and pegasus, accompanied by Spike the Dragon. "You got a problem with blank flanks?!"

Silver Spoon replied in a posh and snobbish tone: "The problem is, like, she is, like, totally _not_ special."

The two newcomers were unfazed by her disgusted tone and stepped through the crowd to stand by Apple Bloom, Spike rushing along to step between both parties. The pearly white unicorn filly, who Apple Bloom recognized from class as a fellow blank flank by the name of Sweetie Belle, frowned at the bullies. "No, it means that she's full of potential."

The orange pegasus, another blank flank, was sort of from class, she was more of a hit or miss student who went by Scootaloo, spoke up next: "It means that she could be great at ANYTHING!"

Spike volunteered to stand by her, much to her eternal thanks, offering in a mock impression of the bullies' own posh tone: "Like, _endless_."

The three each bombarded the two bullies with examples, from scientist, to teach, to writer, stepping forward with each affirmation and making Tiara and Spoon back up, refusing to give anymore ground. Spike jumped forward to be in line with them. "And best of all, she's not set to be as stuck up and arrogant as you two!"

Tiara snorted, pawing at the ground with an angry hoof. "Hey! This is _my_ party, so why are you two siding with her?!"

Scootaloo jumped in between Apple Bloom and Tiara, snorting and flaring her wings. "Because, we blank flanks are tired of being pushed around by bullies and meanie-heads like you two!"

Twilight interjected then, hoping to be the reasonable adult that deescalated things before they went too far. "I, for one, think you are three lucky fillies."

"Lucky?! How can they be lucky?!" Tiara spat, earning a stern glare from the adult actually adulting, but she met their question with an even response.

"Because they still get to experience the thrill of discovering who they are, and what makes them special." And with that, ponies started to crowd around the three blank flanks and cheering for what they thought were good careers, hoping that something stuck, though Tiara and Spoon glared from the back. Tiara threw a fit about her party being ruined, but the only one to listen to here was Spoon, who was receiving the cold shoulder for her efforts. The three broke free from the crowd after some shuffling around, Spike agreeing to distract the various foals with some simple dragon tricks he knew.

"Now that we three are friends, why don't we search for our cutie marks together?" Apple Bloom suggested, earning the rapid approval of the other two, and they immediately left the tattered remnants of the party in pursuit of something far more valuable. "We're gonna be UNSTOPPABLE!"

And as the day drew closed, Twilight took her quill to parchment, wrapped up in a blanket in the library, knowing full well this was something the Princess could hear as a Friendship lesson. "Dear Princess Celestia, I am happy to report that one of your youngest subjects has learned a valuable lesson about friendship: sometimes, the thing you think will cause you to lose friends and feel left out can actually be the thing that helps you make your closest friends and realize how special you are."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

" _As we make our way further into the show, I wanted to let you all know how appreciative we are of this fandom." Pinkie said with a large smile. "This next installment in the trip down memory lane revolves around one of our dearest friend's most spectacular and amazing moves that she has ever done! I am of course, talking about Rainbow Dash's super awesome Sonic Rainboom._

" _I would like to preface this episode highlight by saying that this has been a fun idea, looking back at the very first season, and we will be finishing it up before the end of the last one. Season nine may be coming around, but there have been so many memories that we've made that we will all cherish for years to come, and when the next generation of ponies come around, I know I, for one, will be there to see how it grows and develops!" Her face starts rapidly cycling between sorrow and happiness. "So, without any further ado, here is the super spectacular rewriting of the episode with the most spectacular and awesome event in Equestrian history!"_

* * *

"Now, what have we learned?" Rainbow Dash asked, floating above Fluttershy, her forehooves crossed while she stared expectantly.

"Lots of control." The buttery mare answered, a determined look on her face.

"Good."

"Screaming and hollering."

"Yes, and what else?"

"Passion."

"Right!" Dash did a short loop in place and smiled at her friend, dropping down to the ground. "So, now that you know all the elements of a good cheer, let's hear one!"

Fluttershy smiled, her expression softening as she nodded and adjusted her stance, getting in the prime position for somepony looking to produce the most impressive, loudest, and most passionate cheer that anypony would ever hear. She inhaled briefly, then gave her best effort, producing a lackluster "Yay!"

Dash groaned, forcing her mouth shut to prevent any insulting gapes. "You're going to cheer me on like that? Louder!"

"Yay!" Neither volume nor pitch changed.

"Louder!"

"Yay." Again, nothing changed, which was starting to frustrate the cyan mare.

"LOUDER!" Dash used the kind of voice that she was trying to get from Fluttershy, hoping that an example would set the animal caretaker straight. Fluttershy let in the greatest breath of air that she had ever done, filling her lungs to maximum capacity, all while Dash looked on in anticipation, knowing this would be the greatest shout Fluttershy ever would make.

"Yaaay." While it genuinely looked like Fluttershy had given it her all, Dash's wings fell to the ground, going limp against her sides in pure, unadulterated disappointment. Truly, the thrill-seeking mare didn't know why she expected so much from Fluttershy; the yellow mare had rarely shown her support like this. Dash dropped to the ground in regret, Fluttershy oblivious to her state. "Too loud?"

* * *

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhhhh. . . Skip!

* * *

"Yay!" Fluttershy cheered in her usual way, sitting off to the side while Dash readied herself on a cloud. Fluttershy was excited to be able to show her support to her friend, who wanted to get some extra practice in with some of her finest stunts. She looked up excitedly at her friend, who was getting her breathing under control.

Dash inhaled deeply, finally getting her nerves to settle, then she jumped twice on the cloud, using it as a diving board to leap into her stunts. She performed several warm-up tricks, just a few barrel rolls and loops, swirling around clouds and twisting in the air as if she was chasing her own air trail. After getting a feel for the air currents, she dove to the ground, wind whipping through her mane as she lined herself up with a row of trees. She pulled out of the steep dive, using her massive speed boost to launch herself into a wild barrel roll, grinning as she slipping easily into the first stage of her practice routine. She had to make sure this was perfect. "And now, stage one of my routine!"

Using her speed and the rolling her body was doing, she passed through the gaps in between the trees with practiced ease, twisting her way around them without losing any speed. As she pulled away from the trees, she passed over Fluttershy, causing a rush of wind to tug at the mare's mane and sending leaves whipping by.

Dash tilted her wings up, pulling into a crazy steep ascent in the sky, flying by clouds as she slowly lost her speed, finally coming to a stop and flaring her wings to hold herself in the skies. She reminded herself of the next part of her routine, tracking the weather patterns with her eyes so they wouldn't throw her off course, and gave herself a narcissistic smile. She truly was the most amazing thing in the skies today: it was only proper that she showed off to everypony around! "Time for stage two!"

She slapped her wings against her side, allowing gravity to take her. The wind whipped by as she opened her wings slightly and adjusted her course: keeping her eyes locked on the three clouds she needed. She launched herself at the first, which hung over the edge of Ponyville like Fluttershy at a party, flaring her wings and soaring right beside it. She leaned in and began to race around the circular cloud, making it spin like a top, until she was satisfied with the speed at which it rotated, moving on to do the same with two more clouds. Only when she was happy that the three were spinning as fast as she could, did she pull away, rising as high as she could into the sky. "And now. . . for stage three!"

"Way to go!" Fluttershy called from the ground, though she knew that there was no way Dash heard her.

"The Sonic Rainboom." Dash reminded herself as she teetered atop a column of air, her heart pounding as she readied herself to perform a trick she hadn't done in years. She tilted her wings and did three loops to buy more time as she built up her speed, finding a cone of air beginning to wrap around her. She shut her wings as tight against her body as she could and clamped her legs into an aerodynamic shape. The cone narrowed and her speed picked up immensely, making certain that she was quickly approaching the necessary speed, though she was worried at how close the ground was coming. . .

She panicked for a second, and her wings snapped open, all of her speed coming to a halt as the cone of air around her sharpened into an absorbent wall, one that rebounded and sent her flying back the way she had come.

* * *

"Alright, that's the last one." Twilight sighed, turning to the three of her friends who had shown up to help. "Thank you guys so much for helping me clean up: it was a crazy weekend of studying."

There was a distant sound of screaming, one that directed the four friends' attention to the nearby window. Twilight glanced out of it, trying to determine the origin of the worrying noise, until a blue blob against the equally blue sky caught her attention, and her horror. She jumped out of the way as an out of control Dash soared across the skies, flying straight through the window and right into the library with disastrous results.

Once the wreckage had settled, Twilight groaned from under the mountain of books and popped her head out, both Pinkie and Applejack did the same. Before any of them could make a response about the pegasus' abrupt arrival, Fluttershy fluttered in and stood on the window, more than happy that she caught up to her friend so quickly. "Rainbow Dash, you rock! Woohoo!

"Oh, did my cheering do this?" She asked as she realized the state of the library.

"Heh, sorry about that, ladies." Rainbow Dash said as she crawled to her hooves, her wings strained and her ego a bit hurt. She shook her head clear and made sure all of her extremities were in working order, though her disappointment shone through in the state of the library. "That was a truly feeble performance."

"Actually, it wasn't that bad." Fluttershy noted. "I particularly liked it when you made the clouds spin."

"I wasn't talking about MY performance, I was talking about YOURS, Fluttershy! That was feeble cheering!" Dash said with an unintentional air of brutality.

"What are you two arguing about?" Twilight asked, concern over her friends rising above the concern for her library, though she added confusion to the list as Fluttershy looked around in shock.

"Arguing? Were we arguing? I'm sorry."

"I wish you guys could come to Cloudsdale to see me perform at the Best Young Flier Competition." Dash sighed, turning to face the group of ponies now standing atop the pile of scattered books, Twilight having a curious look on her face.

"What's that?"

"It's where all the greatest pegasus fliers get together and show off their different flying styles." Pinkie answered, happily hopping up to the unicorn with an extremely excited gleam in her eyes. "Some are fast, while others are totally elegant!"

She proceeded to race around the room, demonstrating an abnormal excess of speed for an earth pony, running an unbelievably quick lap or two around the library, neither Twilight nor Dash could keep up. Once she had planted herself back with the group, she rose to her hind legs and did her best to demonstrate a move that Rarity would have been proud of. And the white unicorn probably would have been, had Pinkie not suddenly lost any balance she had and started stumbling around before falling in a heap across the room. They all winced at her antics, but soon the attention was returned to Dash.

"Golly, Ah'd love to see you strut yer stuff in that there competition." Applejack said, her mind quickly putting together a picture of the cyan mare doing stunts she could only barely imagine.

"Yeah, and I wish you guys could be there. Fluttershy's a great support, but her cheering leaves a bit of room to be desired." Dash sighed, kicking at one of the books in front of her, much to Twilight's displeasure. Before anypony could continue, Pinkie suddenly burst from the heap of books beside them, her energy renewed and her mind set.

"OH! I'd love to see you make a Sonic Rainboom! It's like, totally the most coolest, most amazing thing ever! And I just _know_ that Twilight would love to be able to see one up close, I mean it's the SONIC RAINBOOM: how not cool could it possibly not be?!" She practically shouted, making the entire group wince at the volumes being produced.

"What's that?" Twilight asked, curious about this mysterious thing that had Pinkie all excited for, though her question seemed to take a hit on said excitement: Pinkie raised her eyebrows and her face fell into a condescending look.

"You really need to get out more." She said, her original jolly nature pulling through and planting another excitable and imply happy smile on her muzzle as she inhaled for a second to explain why the Sonic Rainboom was the most amazing thing that a pegasus could ever achieve. "This super awesome thing that is known as the Sonic Rainboom is just LEGENDARY! It happens when a pegasus goes so fast that they create a sonic boom and a rainbow at the same time!

"And Rainbow Dash here is the only pony to ever pull one off." Applejack added, making Rainbow Dash rub a hoof to her neck bashfully.

"It was a long time ago, and I was just a filly when it happened." Dash explained, only to have Pinkie hop up in her face from out of nowhere.

"Yeah, but like, you're totally going to do it again. Right?" Those vibrant, baby blue eyes seemed to stare directly into Dash's soul, and the pressure was adding to the fact that she hadn't done another one in so long. She put on a brave face, though she wasn't able to remove the uncertainty from her tone altogether.

"A-Are you kidding me? I'm the greatest flier to ever come out of Cloudsdale: I could do Sonic Rainbooms in my sleep!"

Twilight was finally starting to see what the excitement was for. "Wow, with that kind of stunt, you're going to win the crown for sure!"

"The grand prize is an entire day with the Wonderbolts!" Dash said, her voice now matching Pinkie's. "A whole day of flying with my lifelong heroes! It'll be a dream come true!"

"Yay!" Fluttershy did her best to hype up the rest of them, with one of her signature amazing cheers, which barely crossed the room to meet Dash's ears, though when the cyan pegasus did hear it, she frowned and turned to the buttery pegasus.

"I'm gonna go rest up: wouldn't want to over-prepare myself, ya know?" She turned to Fluttershy, giving the mare a stern look. "You, on the other hoof, need to keep practicing. I need a cheering section to match my _spectacular_ performance."

And with that, Dash took off, though Fluttershy stuck around for just a moment longer, turning to her friends with concern in her eyes. "She's practiced that move a hundred times already, and she hasn't even come close to doing it. I don't know if I can cheer loud enough for it to help her."

She fluttered out the window to catch up with Dash, while the remaining four ponies gathered in a circle. Twilight groaned and started to use her magic to pick up books, whining at the huge extra chore that was added to her day. But before she could get even a single book back onto the shelves, Rarity interrupted her. "Go on and find us a spell that will get us up to Cloudsdale to cheer Rainbow Dash on."

There was a brief conversation that followed, with Rarity needing to explain to them all what per-performance stage fright looked like, and that Dash was obviously suffering from it. And after convincing the rest of the group that Dash would, indeed be needing all the support she could get, Twilight caved and began to search through the piles of books for a spell to give an earth pony flight. Pinkie piped up them, having plowed through a heap of books and throwing one into the unicorn's face. "Page twenty-seven."

"And how did you know where to find that?" Applejack asked, incredulous that the party pony had somehow known exactly which page in exactly which book to look through.

"It fell over my face when Rainbow Dash knocked me into a bookcase." Pinkie answered cheekily.

Twilight skimmed through the page until she found the detailed spell within, only to frown at the complexity of what she was about to cast. If she even _could_ cast it. She looked up from the book to Rarity, who had laid expectant eyes on the exceptionally powerful student, frowning and trying to calculate whether this was within her capabilities or not. She voiced that concern to the others.

"Darling, you have _got_ to try." Rarity said, placing a supportive hoof on Twilight's shoulder, giving some assurance to her capabilities.

Twilight sighed, figuring that she wouldn't be that good of a friend if she didn't at least try, and she looked between her friends. "It won't be easy, but I think I might be able to do it. The only way for me to know for sure, though, is for me to have a test subject, so are any of you willing to help out?"

Applejack and Pinkie looked between each other, the pair still be unsure whether this was the best route, until Rarity spoke up. Volunteering herself as tribute for the sake of her friend in need, she nodding for Twilight to proceed and cast the spell on her. Twilight nodded, hoping that this went well, and she quickly looked over every last detail of the book one last time before tossing it to the side. She charged up her horn, knowing that if she missed or messed up, she'd be far too tired to try again, and readied herself for yet another crazy spell. Her horn flared as the magic began to take shape, the room dimmed a bit, and wind started whipping around them. Still, the spell was incomplete, and Twilight kept pumping her magic into it; until thin white and blue wisps began to encircle Rarity, making her prance nervously in place. Twilight's horn flared extremely bright, casting a final surge of magic, and a black orb emanated from her horn. The spell needed nothing from her, and the wisps closed tight around Rarity, pulling her cocooned form into the air, then the orb shot into the cocoon and it all glowed solid white.

The room began to sparkle as the light passed through the membrane of the cocoon, and soon after, Rarity was free. The spell had worked.

* * *

"You've got to learn to be assertive, Fluttershy. Don't be afraid to speak up." Dash said, leading the named pegasus along as they approached Cloudsdale, a grand sparkling city of clouds and rainbow-hued waterfalls. The two landed in a large clearing, with several cloudy paths leading to various parts of the city, only to have a trio of stallions, whom Dash was very familiar with, to step out from underneath the eaves of a nearby building.

Bullies. Dash hated bullies.

They did the usual of trying to intimidate the two mares, but Dash wasn't having anymore of their stuff, so she quickly told them off, reminding them that she was the best flier present, and that they weren't anything special. Unfortunately, they only fed off the attention, joking that she was kicked form flight school because of an excess of naps, prodding her about her skill set.

It wasn't until Fluttershy actually did a do and stood up for Dash, asserting how the cyan mare was more than capable of performing the infamous Sonic Rainboom, and that she was even going to perform one during the competition later. Though she tried bravely, stepping outside of her comfort zone for just a moment to try to defend Dash, the three bullies simply scoffed, laughing at the attempt and poking Dash with promises to be there and watch her fail at the mythical stunt.

Fluttershy was more than happy with her performance, though, and cheerily ran up to Dash. "Did you see that?! I was so assertive!"

"Oh, who am I kidding, those guys are totally right!" Dash whined, sitting on her haunches and staring at the ground between her and the buttery pegasus next to her. "I'll never be able to do it!"

"Oh, don't give up hope, Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy said, putting a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Just because you failed a hundred times in practice doesn't mean you can't do it in front of a stadium full of hundreds of impatient, super-critical sports fan ponies."

Dash knew that Fluttershy was just trying to be helpful, but the reminder that she was here in Cloudsdale, where all of her old schoolmates and friends were, at the competition where her idols, the Wonderbolts, were giving out a day of awesomeness, was just too much. She felt her hooves start to rip at her mane and she shot up, screaming in nervous frustration. "What do I do?! Everypony's going to see me fail! The Wonderbolts are never going to let a loser like me join, and Princess Celestia will probably banish me to the Everfree Forest or something! My life is ruined!"

"Rar-: Fluttershy mumbled, staring in shock just passed, Dash, who only seemed to notice the sound of the pegasus' voice, as she scoffed at her.

"Rare?! The Sonic Rainboom is way more than rare! It's-"

"Rarity?" Fluttershy's gaze traced upwards, over the cyan pegasus, and her yellow hoof reached up, pointing at something behind Dash. Dash turned to look at what was going on, only for her jaw to drop at the sight of her unicorn fried, floating just above them with sparkling, vibrantly colored butterfly wings stretching from her back.

"Rarity?! Are you flying?!" She gawked.

"I most certainly am!" The unicorn called out smugly, flapping her wings steadily and floating down to the ground, meeting the two pegasi on the soft surface. "Aren't my wings just _smashing_? Twilight made them for me, and I just _adore_ them!"

Even though Rarity was having a blast with her newfound freedom and utter elegance, her friends could only look on in complete shock, gaping wide at a non-Princess unicorn with a pair of wings. She chuckled and hugged Dash quickly, wearing an innocent, gleeful grin as she backed away. "We couldn't leave our favorite flier without a _big_ cheering section!"

Dash shook her head, doing her best to play it off as cool as possible. "We?"

Just as the word left her muzzle, the clouds before them parted, revealing a massive purple balloon, one she knew belonged to Twilight. Sure enough, a basket below the balloon popped up, showing the remaining three of Dash's friends, all sporting huge grins. "I-I can't believe it! This is so cool: you guys made it!"

"Sure did!" Pinkie bounced out of the basket, intending to land on the cloud, which immediately sparked Dash's fear, and the pegasus jumped forward, hoping to catch the bright pink earth pony before she fell through the cloud. She stopped in her tracks when Pinkie landed firmly on the clouds, only adding to the total confusion she was hiding beneath her excited appearance. That confusion worsened when both Applejack and Twilight both hopped out of the basket, landing safely on the cloud.

"How are you guys doing that?" She asked, finally letting the clear confusion show through her expression. "Only pegasus ponies can walk on clouds."

"Pretty cool, huh?" Pinkie asked, doing somersaults passed the two pegasi to show off Twilight's spell, which the lavender unicorn proceeded to explain, after explaining just how she gave Rarity wings.

"And we came here to cheer you to victory!" Applejack added, much to Dash's delight.

"To be honest, I was getting a bit nervous." Dash admitted, suddenly feeling bashful that her facade might not hold through. "Hey, why don't Fluttershy and I show you around town, as we have some time to kill before the tournament?"

The entire group loved the idea, so that was exactly what they did for several hours.

* * *

Throughout the entire tour, which consisted of a disastrous trip to the Weather Factory, a disappointing trip to the Rainbow Pools, and the Cloud Production Facility, Rarity garnered the attention of just about everypony that saw her, causing minor mishaps, or disastrous messes at most of them. She even managed to pull the bullies there, who once more mocked Dash, this time saying she should have given up athletics in favor of beautiful wings like the unicorn's.

By the end of the tour, Dash's moral was destroyed by the raw attention Rarity was receiving, as the unicorn's vanity and predisposition to show off was grating her nerves. How could her boring old feathered wings compete for anything when Rarity just needed a simple spell to have the most amazing wings in the history of feathers?

Dash voiced her concerns to Twilight, who was busy getting the pegasus to calm down, until one if the nearby workers overheard them mention the upcoming event. The worker then turned to Rarity, who was ogling over her wings now shining in the sunlight, and did her best to push through the sheer adoration from such a sight. She managed to work out a suggestion once she'd pulled herself out from the effects of the display: "Miss Rarity? Maybe you should enter the competition?"

"Well, there isn't anypony that uses their wings quite like me. . ." Rarity mused, subtly listening to all of her admirers call out for her to perform, taking in each and every comment as another reason to go with it. "Perhaps I _should_ compete."

"What?!" Dash screamed, fearful that her low confidence was going to dip even lower if her friend actually competed, not certain how much she'd be able to compete against those colorful, admittedly gorgeous wings. Rarity floated off, presumably to enter formally for the competition, dragging her multitude of admirers with her. "What am I gonna do?! I don't know how I'm gonna win the competition against that!"

* * *

" _Hello everybody! Pinkie here! I just wanted to use this brief opportunity to have quick little chat with you all about this amazing series we got going on here." Pinkie beamed happily. "You see, while it may be just this little look at the past, and how things might be different, with small little things changed here or there, in the end; it's all just supposed to be a sort of reminiscing chapter of our lives, something to remind of us our origins and an attempt to humble us. We may have all come so far, and been through so much, but these changes we experience mean nothing if we never learn just how far we've come. That is why we've all gathered here: to remind ourselves of the humble beginnings that everypony may have, and to help serve as a means of capturing the essence of the truth: that anypony could get anywhere in life. It just takes hard work and dedication._

" _Anyways, now that we got that bit out of the way, let's move onto to something a bit more familiar: horrible commercial advertisements that probably change absolutely nothing at all! I'm just going to skip those, since we've all seen them a hundred-and-one times. However, what we all may not know, is the answer to this turn's trivia." Pinkie winked towards the camera, smiling coyly. "This time around is simple, and only takes a bit of searching: there exist a great many comics within the fourth generation of My Little Pony, comics that either enhance the story, or throw it away for entirely new adventures. I've got one if particular, though: the Legends of Equestria. In the finale of this mini-series, there is a particular big bad guy that the old Pillars of Equestria must face, one that we are all quite familiar with. Who is this villain, and what was to be suggested in the final pages?"_

 _Author's interluding note: I've only been able to barely skim this particular part myself, so forgive any incorrect information: I just lack the materials and time to give this a proper gorging read._

" _I'll tell you in three-_

" _-two-_

" _One!" Pinkie cheered, bro-hoofing the air above her. "The big bad guy that the Pillars fight in this comic is an alternate universe version of none other than the Pony of Shadows! Spooky, right?! Well, anyway, after an ensuing fight between the armies of the Pony of Shadows and the Pillars, and throughout the earlier parts of the comic, it is revealed that the Pony of Shadows actually has no clue who Stygian is. This is important because it's known that Stygian will eventually turn into the massive villain, and it is curious to see just how the two are supposed to be separate entities._

" _Now that we've got the boring stuff out of the way, and we got to learn some super interesting stuff about materials that may not be all the well-known to some of you amazing viewers out there; let's return to our wonderful era of modern Equestria!"_

* * *

Dash had had enough of the tour, and had decided to just bring all of her friends to the stadium so that she could get herself in the mindset for her performance. She got all of her friends, minus the now-competing Rarity, seated in the stands, hoping to give them seats that would ensure the best view of her amazing performance, one that she had some confidence would remain true.

With her friends taken care of, she quickly went to the contestant's staging, picking up her number tag, which happened to be number two. She was equally nervous and excited for her big chance, and having an early number meant she could shut out most of the competition by blowing the judges' minds early into the event. At the same time, though, she was terrified that Rarity might end up hurting her own opportunity to spend the day with Spitfire and Soarin and the likes.

Pacing nervously in staging, she had traced a path on the compacted cloud flooring, eyeing the dressing room door that Rarity had locked in her efforts to look utterly pristine. Dash was happy that her friend had joined her, but the pompous attitude Rarity often had could be grating at times, and the cyan pegasus really needed this to all go smoothly: practice had done basically nothing for her.

Still feeling nervous after Rarity had made it clear she was going to go last, so that she could have the final impression, Dash glanced out the curtain, hoping for reassuring glances from her friends. Unfortunately, it seemed that prime seating for the show was just out of range for her to see just what the other four of her friends were doing, but she felt their encouragement nonetheless. Just underneath her friends, however, were those four stupid bullies laughing their flanks off at the show they were about to watch. Dash silently shunned them for being cowardly to skip out on participating in the competition, but she got over it quick enough once the announcers indicated that said show was about to begin.

Princess Celestia was introduced, only adding to Dash's nerves, and the Princess was given a royal reception, as the crowd cheered. Then, nearly stopping Dash's heart, the Wonderbolts were called to, flying low over the stadium and doing several awesome tricks before taking their seats at the judge's table.

"Contestant number one: you're up!" The stage manager called out, leading a light orange mare off to do her performance. Dash breathed heavily, trying to settled her stomach, and getting herself ready to go out there and give it her all. Opening her eyes, she saw the manager eyeing, her, and then, much too quickly for her taste, the manager called out for her number to get going. She glanced at the paper taped to her flank, giving herself all the internal monologue she thought's she need to keep it together, and trotted to the edge. Nodding to herself, she focused on her routine, dashing out to the cheering crowd, immediately honing her eyes in on the columns of dark gray clouds that she'd prepared for.

"Phase one." She muttered to herself as she bolted forward, easily rolling through the clouds and pulling herself into a steep climb, shooting up right next to the stadium seating, causing whirlwinds of air to rock the cloud bleachers. She easily cleared the stadium moving onto her next stunt and began to whip around three good-looking clouds, ones perfect for her next move. "Phase two."

Once she got each of the clouds spinning at a good speed, getting her friends, and indeed, most of the stadium pumped up and nearly screaming for her, she climbed even higher. She liked to imagine that at this height, even the Wonderbolts would be gawking at the awesome stunts she was about to perform.

"Now's my chance!" She gritted her teeth, feeling the air start to get a bit thin, and even the Cloudsdale stadium was starting to look puny from her vantage point, at an altitude she doubted anypony would willing fly up to usually. Tucking her wings tight against her body, she pitched forward and began the insane free fall towards the stadium below. The wind was whipping in her ears, but even still, she _knew_ that the crowd had gone silent in either horror or complete awe. The air around her began to form a cone, and she could feel the pressure changing around her, though the stadium was now approaching rapidly. "Phase. . . three!"

She shot passed the clouds still spinning above the stadium, but now she had to make a very fast choice: slow down and accept defeat, or push her luck a keep going. A flashing image in her head of Rarity flying up to meet her earlier and the three bullies laughing at her destroyed her confidence, and she slowed down, accepting defeat and finishing her stunt with several still high-speed loops and barrel rolls. She finished her stunt with a hasty bow before dashing to hide back in staging, fearing the disappointment she was certain would come from her peers.

She dashed into one of the empty waiting rooms to cool down, avoiding the eye contact of everypony she crossed, until Rarity was called out. Once she felt ready to leave, she gingerly stepped out, noting that most everypony was gone, and trotting carefully to the curtain to see how Rarity was going to perform.

Rarity delicately fluttered out to the main stage, putting on her most dashing smile, and waving bowing to the Princess. The serious attention she'd put into her outfit shone clearly in the excessive display that seemed to mimic that of those exotic birds of paradise or something. She started her performance with a spinning ballet dance, using every exaggerated gesture she could to display utter elegance and passion, straining her butterfly-like wings to keep them stretched for everypony to admire. She put on a performance of pure beauty and elegance, though it was less tricks and stunts and just a bunch of her dancing, as though she were standing on an invisible floor, performing for the whole of Equestria. What her friends noticed most of all, though, was the orchestral music playing in the background, which clashed with the more heavy rock n' roll sounds of literally every other pony.

She continued to perform with grace and precision, earning howling cheers from her eager admirers, all of whom were going nuts for her finesse and poise. Slowly lowering herself until she was level with both the Princess and the judges, who were all eagerly awaiting watch she would do next. She smiled to herself: "And now, for my grand finale. I will fly up to the sun, and beam my beautiful wings over the whole city of Cloudsdale! Oh, they'll be talking about it for years!"

Of course, she knew nopony heard her, but they'd all see her perfection soon enough.

She flapped her delicate wings and rose above the city, earning the silent awe of her captive audience as she ascended to the heavens. She waited until she was directly in front of the sun, which gleamed brilliantly at her back, then spread her wings for the whole stadium to admire, casting a rainbow of colors down on the spectators, and earning cacophonous cheers from everypony. The heat was starting to get to her, but in the moment, not even the strain of her ambitions would slow her now, and she heartily called down to the crowd. "Feast your eyes upon me, Equestria! For I am RARITY!"

She stretched her wings out further for one last explosion of color, only for her wings to start feeling incredibly hot, and smoke to start steaming off of them. She had enough time to cast a single worried look at them before they burnt up, going from glorious wings of beauty and perfection to dusty remains that would never hold her airborne again. Indeed, the moment the wings crisped away, she began to plummet from the skies, screaming in complete terror as she did. She shot passed the stadium, going faster than Dash ever hoped to, flailing and hoping for anything to save her: earning the leaping Wonderbolts diving to her rescue.

The team of experienced flier dropped down next to her, doing their best to catch her, yet before they could lay a hoof on the mare, Rarity's flailing put a hoof to each of their faces, knocking the three clean out.

Fearing the absolute worst, Dash did the only thing she could think of: leaping down after her friend. She tucked herself as aerodynamically as she could, rapidly gaining on the four plummeting bodies, and straining herself to go even faster. The crowd watched on as the cone of air around the pegasus condensed, warping with the colors of the rainbow, even as Dash pushed herself well passed her limits, then in a desperate act of hope, she broke every barrier she'd had.

The cone of air compressed itself tighter, then burst out around her in a vibrant halo of colors, leaving the mare with a rainbow trail and a surge of speed she hadn't felt in years. She rocketed downwards, reaching the four falling ponies in no time and scooping them out of their free-fall before they all became pony pancakes. Even as she skimmed the ground inches beneath her, and through the roaring wind in her ears, she could clearly hear Fluttershy's jubilant cries of joy. As if saving her friend wasn't enough: she'd saved three of the highest ranking members of the Wonderbolts, and then she considered her greatest achievement still to be getting Fluttershy to cheer out like that, though the meek pegasus' voice was soon drowned out by the hysterical applause of the entire stadium at her feat.

Several celebratory loops around the stadium later, she finally landed in the center, receiving help from a dozen ponies to retrieve the Wonderbolt captains and to keep Rarity up. The moment she was clear, however, the confetti started raining down for Dash, and she couldn't help but gawk at the amazing cheering coming from everypony. "I. . . I did it! I actually did it!"

"You sure did!" Rarity gasped, trying desperately to recover her voice, shaking in the grasp of two pegasi. "Oh, thank you Rainbow Dash! You saved my life!"

"Oh yeah! I did that too! Ha!" Dash smirked, her hoof shooting straight into the skies. "Best day ever!"

With the crowds showing no signs of calming down, the four other girls made short work of bring their balloon down so that Rarity had a place to sit, and then she went through a round of apologies, hoping to clear everything up with them all. And one heartfelt apology to Dash later, she was clear of any hard feelings, though Dash was upset she missed her chance to talk with the Wonderbolts.

That was rectified quite quickly, though their presence nearly broke the pegasus, and she was stuck repeating 'oh my gosh' over and over again, until being turn around to the approach of Princess Celestia. The approach of royalty got the entire group of girls to bow.

"Hello, Twilight and all your friends."

"Princess Celestia, " Rarity began, shrinking in her spot. "I am so sorry about ruining this competition. Rainbow Dash really is the best flier in Equestria."

"I know, which is why I am awarding the grand prize to this year's winner of the competition to Ms. Rainbow Dash!" The Princess beamed proudly, and two pegasi came in and placed the reward crown on the pegasus' head, causing her to repeat her favorite phrase all over again. The Princess turned to her faithful student. "Now, Twilight: did you learn anything about friendship from this experience."

"I sure did!" Twilight nodded happily, before sidestepping so her mentor could see Rarity. "But I think Rarity learned even more than me."

"I sure did, Princess. I learned that sometimes, it's better to keep your hooves on the ground, and be there for your friends."

"Excellent." The Princess nodded, turning to watch as Dash claimed her prize of spending the day with the Wonderbolts. "Looks like she has plans, wouldn't you say Twilight?"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

" _I do believe it is only proper we end this amazing short episode with the great finale of the very first season!" Pinkie said, a cheeky grin plastered on her face as she continued to wolf down yet another bowl of popcorn. "And boy of boy do we have an interesting way to finish off: you see, throughout this entire episode, we've been sort of seeing the events of the show through the eyes of the 'Mane 6.'"_

 _She giggled with glee at the pun._

" _But now we get to take a look at the Grand Galloping Gala through the eyes of somepony who was notably absent from much attention, a pony who, considering the weight and importance of such an event, really should have been seen in attendance. I am, of course, talking about none other than the Princess of the Moon; Princess Luna." She waved a hoof towards the projected screen behind her, with a picture of the named Princess._

" _This time around, we get another take at that Slice of Life concept, where my friends and I are going to take a step back, and let the others really shine! But don't worry, we aren't really just sitting around in the background doing nothing; it's just that the spotlight won't be gleaming down on us as we realize what the Gala was really like." She pulled a second cup from her mane, sucking down the sweet drink in an instant. "So let's get this amazing show on the road for a truly great finale!"_

* * *

"Dearest sister, we understand thine enthusiasm of our willing participation. . . but must thou truly make our dress so. . . tight?" Princess Luna asked, grunting and gasping for air each time the maids tending to her dress tightened some of the lacing. Her sister, who had been standing to the side to observe, had started chuckling when it became clear that the Princess of the Night was struggling in the dress.

"You said that you wanted to make a good impression on the ponies that would be coming, and it was your idea to wear the original dresses suited for such affairs. You know; the ones we had worn back when Canterlot was still relatively young?" Celestia smirked, stepping up to her sister as she used her magic to conjure a light, frilly blue dress. "Am I hearing that you are reconsidering my offer to adorn the outfit I had suggested?"

Luna's ears flopped against her skull as she eyed the dress, her attention lapsing briefly as the maids continued the arduous process of lacing up the tight black fabric to her torso. In her own opinion, which she had kept from her sister for fear of disheartening the elder Alicorn, the proposed dress seemed far too casual, and the way it flowed around would have made her seem. . . almost scandalous.

After eyeing the piece again, she turned her attention to the two maids laboring over the lacing along her back, awkwardly standing on their hind legs as they tried to work around her wings. She turned her gaze again to the dress being gently levitated her way, her cyan eyes drifting to her eager sister, who had an encouraging smile and a happy gleam in her eye. She looked back to the dress, trying her best to appreciate the folds of lovely fabric, but her eyes once more wandered over to the well-fitted form of the flanks.

Her pursed lips must have given away her distaste for the dress, as Celestia seemed to shrink back a bit, and the dress started floating away. "If you really don't like it, then I suppose you can just stick with your own choice of attire: nopony will judge you either way."

"Sister, wait!" Luna called out as Celestia started to turn to take the dress back. The elder turned around, a faint glimmer of hope threatening to sparkled into her vibrant pink eyes. 'Did you truly want me to wear that particular dress?"

Celestia just weakly nodded, though she did keep her slightly diminished smile up. Luna sighed, and as the air left her lungs, she felt a spring of pain as the maids tightened the lacing around her ribs even more. She offered her own smile, nodding to the maids. "Then get us out of this dress: for our sister, we shalt adorn the outfit she hath decided for us to impress the audience with!"

The maids wasted no time in doing just that.

* * *

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhhhhh. . . Skip!

* * *

"Alright Luna, remember: these ponies don't really know you all that well, so just be yourself and let them see just how wonderful of a pony you are." Celestia said as the two of them walked down the halls from their private quarters, both of them garbed in regalia fit only for a Princess of Equestria. She glanced down at her sister, who had her gaze glued to her dress, a hoof poking and prodding around at the fabric, and couldn't help but chuckle at the state her younger sister was in. "If you keep that up, you're going to tear a hole in your brand new dress."

The comment got Luna to immediately stop fussing over her appearance, and she shot a half-flustered, half-grateful smile to Celestia. "Sorry, sister. It's just that. . . well, I'm a little nervous."

"Oh?" Celestia stopped so she could fully face her. "And what could possibly have the brave and fierce Princess Luna acting like a filly about to talk to her crush?"

"It's just that I've been. . . away for so long that I'm not entirely sure how they will all react to me." The younger Princess confessed, her eyes dropping to the ground in embarrassment. "I've been back for so long, but there is still so much that I've yet to learn, so much to adjust to and so much that I need to understand. I'm still unsure whether my presence here will even be welcome."

"Luna, of course you will be welcome!" Celestia gave her a strong hug, embracing her distraught sister with an aura of absolute confidence in an attempt to soothe her nerves. "Nopony will judge you for anything, and I'll make sure of that: all you have to do is win them over with your lovely personality."

"Thanks, sister." Luna nuzzled Celestia's cheek in thanks.

"Of course. No, let's go and show them just what an amazing little sister I have!" Celestia pulled away, a satisfied grin on her face.

* * *

Well. . . Celestia hadn't been exaggerating when she had said that few ponies actually know her, as she was mostly able to slide through the edge of the crowd without much trouble. Most ponies probably hadn't even realized she was a Princess: something that divided her with equal parts of relief and anger. She was a Princess of Equestria, and her figure should have been recognizable in an instant, but at the same time, being able to find a small place to speak with only a few ponies at a time would be very useful.

She had been skirting the gathered ponies in search of a small group that she could comfortably talk to, introduce herself, and just generally get to know what the kinds of citizens here at the Gala were like.

The sound of singing from the front gates distracting her before her search could prove fruitful, and she turned her gaze towards the front door, where her sister's protege and her friends had entered the building. She tapped a hoof to her chin, suddenly remembering Celestia mentioning that she had invited the girls this year.

Smiling, she decided to approach them, wanting to thank them for helping her to see the error in her ways and freeing her from the anger and jealousy of Nightmare Moon.

However, before two steps could be taken towards the group of lavishly dressed mares, the group had sprung apart, each daring towards their own personal desires. She frowned as the group split apart, as she now had to hunt each of them down. . . no matter, she could track a pony reasonably well. She eyed her sister, hoping to gauge how the event was turning, when she saw Twilight speaking to the eldest Princess: this would be the perfect opportunity to begin. She started to trot through the crowd, breathing deeply to settle her nerves and putting on a large smile.

"Hurry, Rarity! Oh, but not _too_ fast!" Rarity squealed to herself as she passed before the Princess, her eyes trained out one of the large doors that opened to the gardens. Luna stopped, looking at the mare that trotted passed her, then she turned to see where Twilight's friend was heading, her eyes spotting Celestia's nephew just outside. It dawned on her: the mare was going to try her luck with the pompous stallion. Luna wished her the best of luck, but continued her way towards Twilight.

By the time she had reached the velvety stairs where Celestia and Twilight had been talking, the two had disappeared, and the crowd had thickened enough that she couldn't seem to find the two anywhere. She cursed herself for losing them so easily, but decided that perhaps it was best to just speak with somepony else for the time being. She found a couple of ponies, two ivory unicorns who were talking over glasses of sparkling cider.

She smiled as she approached them, stepping up to the stallion, who had a monocle and fancy tuxedo, and the two stopped mid-sentence to turn to her. "Greetings, we art Princess Luna, sister to Princess Celestia and co-ruler of Equestria. . ."

* * *

Luna was more than pleased with how this conversation was going, with Fancy Pants being one of the most intriguing nobles she had ever run into, with a clear head, a sharp mind, and a warming heart. He revealed his date to be Fleur de Lis, who Luna recognized as one of the inactive guards stationed near the palace.

They had struck a pleasant conversation immediately, and it was a grate relief she felt when she discovered the two had wonderfully respectful views towards all ponies, unlike most of the snobbish nobility she had to meet. They had moved outside to get some fresh air, and she was thoroughly enjoying herself. As they trotted along the decorated gardens, the two unicorns had easily worked her out of her habitual Royal Canterlot Voice, and they had reached a comfortable conversation about the other guests. Fleur added her bit as they turned around a pillar: "All I'm saying is that the very presence of the Wonderbolts here has brought a larger variety of ponies to the Gala, and I think we can all agree it has been refreshing to escape the clutches of your 'entourage' Fancy."

"Yes, ponies like them can be difficult to deal with for any length of time." The stallion replied, his face beaming as he spotted a large green cart full of pies and assorted treats. "Would either of you care for something special?"

Luna looked to Fleur before shaking her head: "No, but I thank you, Fancy Pants. I just ate before the Gala, and am feeling quite content at the moment."

"I must agree with the Princess here: while those pies look absolutely delicious, my figure couldn't take much food while we are walking about." Fleur said, chuckling self-consciously and gently patting her stomach. "The life of a model, I'm afraid. Oh, not to worry, it appears the stand already has a customer."

Just as she said, a stallion in the trademark blue jumpsuit that Luna recognized as a Wonderbolt stepped up to the stand ordering the largest apple pie available. The three of them chuckled and turned to head back inside, per Luna's request to see what else was available. As they did so, however, they watched the Wonderbolt drop his pie as he greeted another from the faction. Luna's gut tightened as she watched the pie spin as it fell, everything around them falling in slow motion, and she charged her horn to catch the pastry, only to have a blue blur shoot out from the crowd and catch the pie midair.

She cocked her head, seeing yet another of Twilight's friends, this one being the blue pegasus she remembered as Rainbow Dash; Element of Loyalty.

Well, with the crisis averted, she led Fancy and Fleur away from the scene, even conversing with the occasional pony that approached them. She felt a little sad inside that each pony came up to them and introduced themselves to Fancy Pants first, then suddenly became aware that they were in the presence of a Princess: it stung her pride with no avail in sight.

At least, until word started spreading that Fancy Pants was in the company of a Princess; then all sorts of ponies were clamoring for their attention. At first, she had enjoyed the attention, and meeting the variety of ponies that were attending had been wonderful, but the hordes of uppity ponies trying to earn favor with her and, through her, her sister had grown tiresome very quickly. Luna wished the two unicorns well and decided to leave, escaping the bothersome nobles to them, and heading to another portion of the party.

She found herself stepping into what looked to be the remnants of the dancing area, with scoffing nobles complaining about a bouncing pink pony that had ruined their entertainment just moments prior. She looked around for a moment, until she spotted the mare in question, Pinkie Pie; sulking near some assorted beverages. Whatever had happened, the bright and bubbly mare looked utterly defeated, and Luna felt a pang of sympathy for her.

From what she had heard about the pink pony, these kinds of gatherings weren't really attracting the same crowds that Pinkie may have been used to.

Putting on a reassuring smile, she started to trot towards the disappointed mare, but was interjected by a group of unicorns who had recognized her as a Princess. She greeted them warmly, growing steadily more comfortable with conversations as the night wore on, but she still felt like she should speak with Pinkie Pie; if not to express her gratitude over helping her, then to cheer the pink pony up.

However, she couldn't seem to get a break in her conversation with the ridiculously pompous ponies, and when she finally managed to spare a glance at the refreshments' table, Pinkie Pie had disappeared on her. Still, it was her duty as a Princess to appease the masses, so she forced her irritation down and continued to converse with the unicorns until it dawned on them that she wouldn't be granting them special privileges with Celestia. When they realized they couldn't rise in rank or popularity, they each made halfhearted attempts at turning away, making it clear they were no longer interested in speaking.

While it was amusing to see these social leeches try to pretend to be more important than her, she hardly felt like showing them the error of their way: better to let somepony who cared do that. She nodded to them and gladly left the ballroom, looking for other ponies that could have been as lovely to speak with as Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis had been.

* * *

" _Yeah. . . that first time at the Gala had really been an eye-opener for the lot of us, I think." Pinkie muttered, standing from her seat to take an obnoxious stretch. "But I think we all learned from the experience and ultimately, Princess Celestia did say that she thoroughly enjoyed the event, so. . . all in all, I agree that it was something we will look back on fondly._

" _Now, I'm sure this particular method of reviewing the episode has caught a few of you off guard, so I think it was time we tried to explain the reasoning behind our author's decision." Pinkie said, nodding and happily taking her place in the director's seat. "After going through some of his other work, and reviewing some of the ideas he had posted in various notes, as well as a short conversation with him: I think I've gotten a straight answer. In short; it was a combination of a strong amusement factor from the episode itself, curiosity at what events may have been happening in the background, as well as the general wonder of where the remaining introduced royalty were at the time. He told me that both Celestia and Blueblood had strong appearances, and Cadance had yet to be introduced yet; so just where was Luna during the event? She wouldn't have been asleep; it was the middle of the night!_

" _After reading through the notes he had, I agree that it was interesting to think about what may have been going on in the background, though at the Gala itself, I disagree, saying it wasn't all that fun. Still: good memories were made, and I was greatly. . . intrigued by the idea of exploring what the other major Princess was doing." She tapped a hoof to her chin for a second, her eyes dipped downwards as she mulled a thought over. "You know, I do believe Cadance might have made an appearance in his notes. . . guess we'll just have to find out._

" _But!" She held her hoof up to silence anyone that thought of interrupting her. "Before we head back in time to watch the rest of the Gala play out, we've got some trivia and even more of the bathroom-friendly commercials to go through! So, as per the usual; let's ask the trivia question, and then we can all rush to the bathrooms and come back just in time for the show!_

" _Here's the trivia, but get ready, 'cause it also refers to one of the pivotal characters in the original episode: Prince Blueblood goes by many names, from Prince to spineless, heartless, and rotten to the core. However, in one particular European country, in an alternative media, he goes by another name, one completely unrelated to the show and even contradictory to it. What was that name?"_

 _Insert an ad for yet another movie soon to come out, though no one remembers it because everyone is still reeling from the last amazing movie._

 _In comes an ad for a social media outlet that has gained some traction, yet we can't say for sure why it's appearing here._

 _Following that strange ad that got everyone confused, here's one about a very important disease research charity._

 _Insert the final ad, some random piece of junk about candy, that we are all quite aware of by now._

" _And we're back!" Pinkie gasped, leaping forward and grabbing the camera facing her with both bright pink hooves, a face-splitting grin plastered to her face: it was clear she'd been pounding some more sugary drinks. "And boy oh boy do I have some fun facts to share with all of you right now! Back before the break, we asked the question of who Prince Blueblood was known by in other parts of the world, well; this one particular instance in this one particular place. Well: the answer comes in two parts, the first is the place this name is seen, in the lovely country of France, within a story in a magazine. The second part of this answer is his actual name, which is particularly strange: Vladimir. They called him by Vladimir in this one story. . ._

" _Well, I guess it's time to get back to the story" She frowned, nodding for the screen to continue playing._

* * *

Luna trotted through a particularly loud section of the Gala, her ears immediately pulled down to stifle the impact from the noise. Scanning the room for somepony interesting to speak with, she quickly discovered with the room was so loud to begin with: this was the area that the Wonderbolts had taken to idle about in.

She nodded to herself: this was indeed the place to be if she wanted some quality conversation. Even if she couldn't get to talk with a Wonderbolt, she knew plenty of daring ponies would be gathered trying to do so, and she could strike up a conversation with some of them.

With a renewed hope of this turning out to be a good night, she smiled and began to dive into the crowd, working her way through several circles of ponies; she found out later on that a Wonderbolt tended to be at the center of each circle. She did chat with some of the other ponies, though the number of uppity nobles lounging around the area actually surprised her. She would have guessed the noise itself would have run them all off.

Still, she found a couple of pegasi who seemed alright to talk with, though they seemed a bit uneasy talking with a Princess. It probably didn't help that she often had to resort to her Royal Canterlot voice just to be heard, but she also found it hard to converse with them due to a severe misunderstanding of various terms.

Eventually, she accepted the loss and let them go, heading to the refreshments to get something to drink. As she sipped on a glass of cider, she saw a pink shape in her peripherals, somepony she had been bonding with extensively since returning to her throne. She turned and smiled a greeting at the lively young Alicorn, garbed in a bright pink dress that matched her coat rather well. Cadance seemed excited to see her out and about, especially in such an excitable area of the Gala.

"And just what are you doing here?" The bright pink Princess asked, filling her own cup of cider and taking her place by her aunt's side. "I figured a royal as refined as yourself would have made yourself comfortable with the richest of nobles over in the proper region of the Gala."

"We find it difficult to tolerate the more. . . assured ponies that our sister decreed welcome here." Luna sighed, swishing her drink before motioning for Cadance to follow her. The two made their way out of the raucous room, heading into a much more relaxed area, the soft music from the ballroom bleeding down the hall. The two stopped as they saw a line of ponies hoping to get to the top of the stairs, and when they glanced up, neither could stop their smirks at what they saw. Celestia looked to be trying to hold a conversation, but she had to stop every other word to greet the next pony in line and offer a quick bow of recognition. "The ponies of this time are far more lenient and. . . dignified than what we art used to: we question just how our sister managed to let this become so."

"Hmm. . . well, as funny as it is to see a bunch of nobles lined up to kiss Celestia's hoof, I found the Wonderbolts to hold much better company." Cadance said, chuckling as her aunt tried to continue conversing with somepony to the side of her. "Perhaps you'd like to see what the life of the party, so to say, is like with the best stuntsponies in Equestria?"

"That sounds like a plan." Luna smiled, and the two turned to leave, and just as they exited the main foyer, a chorus of singing drafted through the halls. Somepony had changed up the elegant tune that had been playing earlier, and had gone and changed it to an upbeat singalong that really didn't sound like it belonged in a place like this. She looked over to her niece, who only shared her confusion, so the two followed them towards the sound, taking them back to the ballroom, where a particular pink pony-

* * *

" _Hey, that's me!"_

* * *

-was standing on the stage, singing a happy tune meant to get everypony dancing.

They listened along, though their attention was more focused on the other ponies in the room, who had started sneering at Pinkie. This wasn't going to end well, but neither Luna nor Cadance really knew what they were going to do about it. After the song was complete, and with quite the show put on by the pink party pony, one of the mares in the crowd cleared her throat and, with the most snobbish sounding accent, berated Pinkie. "Young lady, this is not _that_ kind of party."

The words didn't entirely look like they went through for Pinkie, as she blinked and rolled her eyes, as if completely understanding what was going on. "Oh. . . these ponies don't want to party; they want to _par-tay_!"

She reached into her mane and pulled out an entire turntable, and dropped two records onto it, cranking the volume as loud as she could and filling the room with heavy electronic music. Luna blinked in surprise and upon hearing a slap, turned to see that Cadance had groaned and facehoofed. She looked back to Pinkie, who had jumped down onto the dance floor, her face set in fierce resolve, her eyes sparkling with an intense challenging look. "Come on everypony! You wanted a _par-tay_ well, now let's _PAR-TAY_!"

She jumped into the air, timing herself just as the music behind her dropped, landing on all four hooves and jumping between the ponies trying to get them moving. Luna felt her own need to facehoof as she watched the party desperately trying to get ponies into the dancing spirit, yet before she could, she felt Cadance tugging on her dress.

"Let's get out of here before things take a turn for the worse." Luna nodded in agreement, allowing Cadance to lead them back to the large room still utterly filled with ponies. It seemed that the biggest two attractions were being greeted by Celestia or trying to meet the Wonderbolts. They had just reached the large entrance to the room when there was a loud gasp from the room behind them, and then everything there, even the music, went deathly silent. The two Alicorns looked between each other before turning to see what was going on.

Cadance gasped at the sight on the far end: Twilight's good friend Rarity stood rigid, her front half completely covered in cake. Luna gaped in shock, then snapped at attention as the soiled mare whipped around, her voice shrieking as she spat towards the stallion behind her, who Luna assumed was her nephew. "You sir, are the most un-charming prince I have ever met! In fact, the only thing 'royal' about you is that you are a royal PAIN!"

Rarity had slowly inched forward until Blueblood had pressed himself against the door, cowering in revulsion and shaking in his hooves. "Ew! Uh. . . stay back! I've just had myself groomed!"

"Afraid to get dirty?!" Rarity asked in an enraged mocking tone, glaring daggers as she stepped even closer to him, getting him to squeal in terror. In a very unladylike manner, she began to vigorously shake her head, flinging considerable amounts of cake onto the distressed stallion. After she had finished her display, Blueblood recoiled back, stumbling until he tripped on his own tail, slamming to the ground and knocking the large Alicorn statue over.

Luna's horn charge up to catch it, once more, but there a shout from the side distracted her, and a blue blur emerged from the crowd, dashing straight to the statue. Dash appeared underneath it in an instant, cheering that she had caught the thing on her back, exclaiming how cool she was.

The cyan pegasus tried to readjust the statue on her back, but she stumbled, and for a split second, she nearly lost her balance. Just when it looked like she was about to get the statue back under control, she tripped over Blueblood, and the statue tipped backwards, slamming into one of the large pillars that had encircled the pedestal. The crowd watched in horror as the pillar struck another, and a chain reaction led to each of the six pillars slammed into each other, knocking themselves down.

Luna acted with certainty this time, casting a large blue bubble around the pillars, letting them collapse in on each other under the protection of her spell, which was held until the dust began to settle. As soon as the barrier was lifted, the dust dissipated, and the crowd could see Rainbow standing between the pillars, so fulled with shock that she had locked up in place.

Luna thought this was about as bad as things could get, which suddenly, in walked both Celestia and Twilight, who were trying to figure out what was happening. After the two observed the total wreckage, she heard Twilight mutter a simple: "Well, at least it can't get any worse."

The comment made her gut clench tight, because even she understood that whenever somepony said something like that; things _always_ got worse. Sure enough, the moment the words left the violet mare's mouth, there was a massive quake, then the doors leading to the garden burst open, and a stampede of small critters broke loose within the palace. From behind the stampede came a frantic-looking Fluttershy, whose dress was in tatters and her coat had several scratches from her previous endeavors to befriend said critters. She stomped on the ground, her temper and desperation clear to all. "You're going to LOVE ME!"

In the utter chaos, Luna lost track of both her sister and niece and she was certain she wasn't going to see any of Twilight's friends for a while, which caused her a moment of sadness. That emotion was crushed as she realized the importance of reigning in this stampede, so her horn lit up and she began to wrestle the animals under her control.

About an hour later, she finally managed to get the entirety of the garden's wildlife population back where they belonged, though the Gala was officially ruined. She didn't mind it, if she were to be honest: she had gotten to have a few great conversations, she had an idea of what modern ponies were like at these kinds of events, and she even got to show off her impressive magical abilities. So while it hadn't entirely lived up to her expectations, she wasn't sure what those expectations were to begin with.

Once everypony who remained at the palace had left, she resumed her duties as a Princess and aided with the clean up, replacing the pillars in a matter of minutes once reserved marble had been brought out, and eventually, she was greeted by a satisfied-looking Celestia. "Greetings, sister."

"Hello, Luna. I take it everything has gone smoothly now that all the ponies are out of the way?" Celestia asked, pulling her younger sister away from the remaining work.

"Indeed. We hath nearly finished the repairs that were needed. How fared Twilight and her friends? We expect they were disappointed with how their night turned out."

"Actually, I think they learned a valuable lesson about enjoying events when you are with your friends, and we all happened to agree that this was perhaps one of the finer nights they'd enjoyed together." Celestia chuckled at the surprised look Luna gave her.

"Really? Hmm, perhaps we should look into finding friends such as them." Luna looked down for a moment, her thoughts racing. "We hath much to think about, sister. We suggest thou get some good rest: 'twas an adventurous night, and we art certain thou needs a long rest."

"I'll be sure to do that: just don't overwork yourself, Luna." Luna waved her off, her thoughts returning to the idea of spending some time with Fancy and Fleur again: they were remarkable company, after all.


End file.
